Ronald McDonald House Charities of Knoxville TN

Our Main Purpose - Housing Families: The Ronald McDonald House offers temporary lodging for families having critically ill children, 21 years of age or younger, being treated in area hospitals. In our thirty-six years of operation we have served over 58,000 people. Beside the obvious financial advantage of staying at our "home-away-from-home" where we gladly waive the $5.00 per night requested donation if it is prohibitive, there is the additional benefit of meeting other families who are experiencing similar medical problems with their children. It's a place where they can draw additional comfort and support from friendships that are born here. In addition to lodging, our supportive community helps provide all the comforts of home such as food, laundry facilities, transportation,free wi-fi...all of which are included in their stay. We can accomodate 65 people or 15 families in the two houses we operate. By year's end, we had received referrals from five different medical facilities that represented families from 16 various states and 32 counties from across Tennessee. What brought these people to our doors? The most prevalent reason was newborn complications such as prematurity and respiratory issues, spinal surgeries, neurological and gastric issues, cancer treatments and twenty-seven other medical conditions. Although we have no length of stay restrictions, the average length of stay was 7 days. As long as a child is hospitalized, family members including extended family and siblings have been welcome.

Our Secondary Purpose - Grantmaking: One of the hallmarks of the McDonald's corporation over the years has been their unqualified commitment to children. As a legacy to McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities or RMCC was founded to champion philanthropic groups worldwide that were dedicated to the betterment of children. In an effort to streamline their organization to make a greater impact on a local level, the Global McDonald's office requested that RMCC and Ronald McDonald Houses across the country consolidate which was the genesis of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Knoxville, TN, Inc. in 1996. Funding and operating the Knoxville Ronald McDonald House will always remain the number one priority of the non-profit and monies raised under the auspices of supporting the Ronald McDonald House will be used exclusively for that purpose and are maintained in a separate account.