Ronald McDonald House opens in Wonder Tower at VCU’s Children’s Hospital

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Families with sick children will now have a new place to stay when they take their child to the hospital for medical care.

After 43 years, a second Ronald McDonald’s House is opening in Richmond. This one is inside the new Wonder Tower at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

A ribbon cutting was held Tuesday inside the hospital before it officially opens to the public on Wednesday, July 19.

The new facility, which has been in the works since 2018, is over 3,000 square feet and features four family sleep rooms, a children’s play area and food service areas.

“Sometimes we just cry, we just go in here and cry so the child won’t see what we go through,” said Talisa Alexander, who’s been a part of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond for over a decade.

The Alexander family has been in and out of the children’s hospital and a part of the RMHC since 2009, when Nevaeh was born. She was only two pounds when she was delivered – and was admitted into the NICU at VCU.

“Stayed in here for 220 days, I was going up the street to the monument hospital back and forth the whole time, I’d go to work at McDonald’s early in the morning, get on transportation, go down here, stay overnight, come back, do the same thing,” she explained.

Alexander says because of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, she got that chance to step away, in private, and let her emotions out, and she’s incredibly thankful for this program.

“Having your children in the hospital. It’ll have you all different ways, so it’s really a blessing,” she said.

The hospital’s president says it’s important for families to have a place to escape during a time that can make them feel trapped.

“When you have a space you can go to where the family is taken care of, it enables our teams to do what they love to do, and that is take care of their children,” said Elias Neujahr, the president of the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

There will also be staff on-site to support families by offering them things like warm dinners, yoga sessions and snack services.

In addition to this new location, the Ronald McDonald House on Monument Avenue will continue to help families in need.

For more information about the new space and what it offers to families in Richmond, click here.

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