Family respite addition to open

One night, an exhausted and distraught mother collapsed in the lavish Victorian living room of the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. This haven offered her a safe respite while her child was undergoing a high-risk operation at a nearby hospital. When the woman awoke the next morning, she set her eyes on the pale angels painted in the mural on the ceiling. At that moment, she knew her child would survive. As the story goes, the child lived. But during the past five years, more than 5,000 families have been turned away from the 19-bedroom home-away-from-home for families with seriously ill children undergoing treatment at nearby hospitals, according to Robin Sole, executive director of the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. Next Tuesday, though, the Chestnut Street facility will open a new $4.5 million, 24-bedroom addition. "We can now house 1,000 additional families every year," said Marsha Peltz, publicist for the Ronald McDonald House Great Penny Drive. "Up to this point we could only house 600 families each year." A large, open kitchen, three play areas, lounges, a courtyard, outside terrace, laundry room, family room and underground garage are also included in the new addition. Peltz describes the house as a happy place that provides families with a homey atmosphere, a hot meal and a good sleep while their children and siblings undergo organ transplants and treatment for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. "The house is also therapeutic because the mothers can talk to other mothers," she added. "There is an understanding that you cannot get anywhere else." Maureen Pickford of Allentown, Pa., came to the center 2 1/2 months ago when her seven-month-old child underwent treatment for chronic lung disease at the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. "This is my home now, not a hospital bedroom," she explained. "My daughter does not stay here, she is in the hospital permanently. It has been wonderful." The grand opening of the expanded Ronald McDonald House coincides with the Great Penny Drive, an effort to collect thousands of pennies between October 19 to 23 in order to pay off the final $250,000 installment of the newly expanded home. "The idea behind the drive is that the Federal Reserve says there are $3 billion worth of pennies out there and we just want a little of it," Sole said, urging students to contribute. Established in 1974, the first Ronald McDonald House opened at 4032 Spruce St. In 1981, it was moved to its current location in the stone mansion at 3925 Chestnut St. The house currently functions with a staff of four employees and more than 150 volunteers, who provide social services, drive vans back and forth from hospitals and serve as companions to the sick children and their families. According to Sole, the University enjoys a close relationship with the house. College junior Stephanie Nolan said she stayed at the house when she was five years old while her sister underwent kidney surgery at CHOP. "I played there when I was little," she said. "And now I volunteer there playing with kids through Kite and Key." College junior Alexis Usnick, a Russian major, helps a Russian mother and her sick four-year-old daughter who do not speak a word of English. "I play with the little girl and am a companion to the mother," she said. "I also check phone messages and translate. "It is the little things I help her with that make a difference," Usnick added. "She is lonely and no one speaks her language." More than 10,000 families have stayed at the house, the world's first Ronald McDonald House. The home inspired the opening of 160 Ronald McDonald Houses throughout the world. Peter Wilmerding, president of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, calls the site "the house that love built." "We are very proud of the Philadelphia House because this is where it all began," he said.