A new Ronald McDonald House opens on the campus of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in Brookhaven in about six weeks. While the nonprofit is putting the finishing touches on the building, leaders also hope to boost awareness with a new name and marketing tagline: “Family stays.”
Formerly Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities, the group is now Ronald McDonald House Atlanta.
“We have great name recognition. What [people] don’t have is a good understanding of how we serve the community,” Tracey Atwater, president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Atlanta, told Atlanta Business Chronicle.
“My hope is that [the new campaign] will help people understand better that we are a place for families to stay” when their children are sick or injured and being treated at a nearby hospital, she said.
The Atlanta nonprofit is one of 10 Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide that launched the marketing push, which kicked off in early October. There are 250 independently operated chapters in more than 60 countries and regions.
As part of the campaign, the global organization also set a goal of reaching 2 million families each year — essentially doubling the number of families it serves by 2030.
Ronald McDonald House Atlanta is already on its way to adding more capacity.
The organization operates a house on Peachtree Dunwoody Road near Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Scottish Rite Hospital. It sold its facility on Gatewood Drive near Children’s Healthcare’s former Egleston Hospital location on the campus of Emory University. That house will be replaced by the new facility on North Druid Hills Road.
“When we open this house in December, we’ll have 75% greater capacity to serve than we do today. And we’ve already seen over 50% growth just in the last two years,” Atwater said, adding that the number of families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House is closely tied to the demand for services at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and other pediatric hospitals in the region.
Last year, Ronald McDonald House Atlanta paid for 1,400 families to stay in hotels because there was no space in its Atlanta-based houses.
“While that was great because they didn’t have to sleep in their car… that’s not where the magic is,” said Atwater, who became president and CEO of the organization in 2023.
Ronald McDonald House Atlanta’s newest house will span 126,000 square feet. It will have a community room to host more than 300 people for meetings; a dining area that can accommodate 440 people, or all of its residents at one time; outdoor and indoor playgrounds; multiple laundry facilities and eight transplant suites.
The new house will also have on display letters of encouragement from former residents posted throughout the facility and in coffee table books. The letters, along with video re-creations, are part of the “family stays” campaign and will portray real-life experiences. Officials said the hope is that residents understand the house is a place to physically stay, and also a place to stay supported and cared for.
Source: Ronald McDonald House Atlanta
