Ronald McDonald House redos include new vroom

You don't need a lot of money to give a lift to families of children with  serious health issues.

Sometimes a smile is enough.

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But if you can bake cookies,round up a half-dozen friends to help cook a meal or serve as a volunteer driver or keep the coffee carafe filled, the Ronald McDonald House in Camden will welcome you.

The smile perhaps is the most essential.

Once in an old stone building that was razed to make way for the expansion of Cooper University Hospital, the Ronald McDonald House for Southern New Jersey sits in a trim four-floor brick building on Mickle Boulevard that blends not only with the hospital but into the blocks of new construction in Camden.

Step into the lobby and first-floor family room through a real front door, not a hospital-style revolving one, and the bustle of car, bus and train traffic is silenced. Decorated with a seashore theme, the area offers comfy couches and chairs and no television.

The first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia in 1974, the concept of world-renowned oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Jim Murray, former general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. A former tight end for the Eagles, Fred Hill, had been forced, like other parents of ill children, to wait on folding chairs at CHOP and eat whatever was available from vending machine. Hill's pre-school daughter was being treated for leukemia at the time.

The team, its former owner Leonard Tose, and Murray rallied to raise funds for leukemia research (the Eagles still organize an annual fundraiser, Eagles Fly for Leukemia research). They won support from the fast-food restaurant chain and were able to open the first Ronald McDonald House in 1974 in Philadelphia.

The goal of the house is to provide “hope, health, and a home” to parents and other family members while children receive treatment for traumatic injuries or serious health conditions.

OPENING ITS DOORS

The first Camden house opened in 1982, replaced in 1998.

“We knew Cooper would take this block,” remembers Teddy Thomas, president and executive director of Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey. The new facility was built on what had been a metered parking lot. Internationally, there are 300 Ronald McDonald Houses in 30 countries. Only about 25 percent of them are “built from scratch,” said Thomas.

“It's a lot like running a bed and breakfast,” said Thomas, who doesn't stay at the house beyond regular working hours. Resident innkeepers are available after dinner and until the office staff arrive each morning.

Families apply for inclusion on the “guest list,” where there are always people waiting for rooms that have an annual 98 percent occupancy. Until Cooper expanded its pediatric unit, most of the families staying at the Camden house were involved in treatment at hospitals in Philadelphia or Wilmington, Delaware.

Under its regulations, children receiving treatment must live no closer than 35 miles, so the draw for the house is for families who have been able to schedule treatment in specialty programs available at CHOP, St. Christopher's and Shriner's Hospitals.

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Most of the children treated at Virtua's facilities live closer than 35 miles.

A PLACE TO BE

Even if sick children and their parents are local, they benefit from Ronald McDonald family rooms in 13 hospitals. Those areas in pediatric wings provide snacks and waiting rooms for families, a step up from the folding chairs and vending machines experienced by families decades ago.

If necessary, volunteer staff at the Ronald McDonald houses provide transportation. Others volunteers team up to cook breakfast on weekends and a hot meal every night.

“Each night, a group comes in from the community. Ten is about the maximum number or they start getting in each other's way. They pick the food, and it doesn't have to be fancy. It can be meatloaf and mashed potatoes or a pot roast or turkey,” said Thomas of the kitchen crew at the Camden house.

“It's really not that hard to cook for 60 or 70 people,” said Thomas.

The entire volunteer staff includes about 700. “It's a team,” she said.

Families — sometimes including the sick child if possible — share a large community dining room. Each family also gets a shelf in a refrigerator and a cabinet where they can store staples like cereal and snacks.

Mounted to the wall outside the dining room is a large metal bell, a tradition in many hospitals with oncology units. “You ring the bell when you get good news. It can be that a child's fever is down or he gets to go home or passed tests that show he's cancer free. It's very uplifting for everyone.”

Socialization among families, especially among young patients and their siblings, is a prime factor for operating the house, said Thomas. “At home, in their schools, these children often are treated differently. Here, they are all kids together. Sometimes they get a little noisy playing games.”

Similarly parents find comfort among others facing the tough job of remaining upbeat and hopeful while their child is ill.

The real highlight of the houses, however, are the rooms. In Camden, four new rooms opened this year, when space that had been assigned for board meetings was shuffled to another area. The openings led to a rush for sponsors, who are responsible for designing, outfitting and maintaining the rooms, from window treatments to linens. Each year, the room must be refreshed and linens are replaced, said Thomas.

Each room has a theme, which must be approved by the board of directors.

One sponsor wanted a "Star Wars'' theme, said Thomas, but board members thought it might be scary for very young children, so the plan was downplayed to highlight Princess Leia. Others focus on sports teams and games and popular children's books.

“Some have done this for 18 years,” said Thomas.

Other financial sponsors support a room through a “Give 365” program, where they donate the $15-a-day cost of the room. Sometimes those donors chose to remain anonymous.

Families are asked to pay $15 a night for their room and board, although the fee can be reduced if there is a financial hardship.

Every floor has a large TV room with space allocated both for children and adults. That room usually is next to a laundry room, where families can refresh the provided linens and their own clothing. The laundry rooms are maintained by American Water Company. There's even a room for teens.

Thomas said 50 percent of the children whose families stay at the Camden Ronald McDonald house are chronically ill and will return. “We have one boy who's been here twice a week for 29 weeks to get chemo. It allows him to keep his school schedule.

“We make it possible for families to be together. Sometimes both parents can't come because one has to stay home, taking care of the other children, keeping their job,” said Thomas.

Some of the guests at the house are pregnant women who need in vitro surgery for their unborn children.

RIGHT ON TRACK

A high-five wasn't a nearly strong enough reaction when Mary Ann Bryszewski was invited to design a family bedroom at the Ronald McDonald House.

Bryszewski is the creative advisor for the Holman Automotive Group, a Mount Laurel company that does a lot more than sell cars.  Employees of the company have been involved in community outreach for decades, encouraged to spend a day or more on the company payroll, working with charitable organizations.

“It was on my bucket list. We got the opportunity when (the house) opened four new rooms this year. I got a creative team together. It's a tribe of many people,” she said.

The room that was available for a complete redo previously had a Dr. Seuss theme. Bryszewski and her Holman team were definitely into cars.

With fixtures like window treatments removed, they scrubbed down the walls and trim and readied it for new paint.

“We were there five days and it's all new,” she said, of the project that looks like an auto shop from about six decades go.

Before the planning was over Bryszewski had put the squeeze on people in the interior design world and had squeezed a bit tighter on the husband of a friend with a reciprocal saw, Wayne Muhlbaier, to slice off a portion of a tire that would become the frame of a mirror. A retired Holman employee, Laird Poinsett, was recruited to attack more old tires to be used for a night stand and floor lamp.

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She wanted car beds for children who would be staying in the room, but also wanted something more adult for their parents. “I didn't want a adults lying in a bed that was whimsical while their child was in the hospital. It would be inappropriate. We want them to be comfortable, but this time isn't a joke for them,” she said of her choice for a traditional queen-sized bed.

“I knew I wanted brick wallpaper so I went to Atlas and Bernie (Katz) found the paper. When it was delivered and installed and I asked for an invoice, there was no charge,” she said.

Mantua Sign and Lighting gave the design team a price break on creating a sepia-toned photo mural that shows mechanics at work in a 1950s-era Holman shop.

She recruited an intern at the Holman parent firm to help her use a 3-D printer to make license plates for the two twin-sized car beds.

In an old storage area, she found abandoned car battery racks. They'd be perfect, she thought, for towel racks.  She used another rack and loaded it with buckets that she wanted filled with Legos. The Legos arrived from the manufacturer the next day.

The team of 11 volunteers decided to keep a dresser already in use but to change it out with diamond-block for the top. Similarly, the vanity in the bathroom was painted bright red so it resembles a rolling tool box.

Handles on the sink are replicas of car door handles. “I got a lot of this stuff from Hobby Lobby,” said Bryszewski.

Jody Kushner from Kushner Draperies in Pennsauken provided the cornices and draperies and interior designer Linda Cardile found and supplied bedding that carried out the automotive theme.

When Bryszewski wanted a ceiling fan for the room, she went to Billow's Electric, who took one from the display floor and had it installed.

“A lot of people gave 100 percent of their hearts,” she said of the room redo.

Bryszewski said one family was walking down the hallway when they were dismantling the Dr. Seuss theme.

A young girl pouted when she learned it was being replaced by “car stuff.”

When the family stopped by later and peeked into the room, she said, the child shrieked: "Car beds! They have car beds!''

How to help

A listing of volunteer opportunities for the Ronald McDonald House, and  breakdown of services provided by those volunteers, can be found at www.ronaldhouse-snj.org.