Market Monday: The House That Love Built

Last week we shared with you the first blog in our Market Monday blog series and hope you enjoyed reading about our event partner M2G Ventures. Our blog series will run every Monday until the Holiday Market and we’ll be sharing more about our market partners, what they do, how they got started and how we are working together.

Today's post is from our partners at The Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth. As our market beneficiary, it’s important to us to let others know what great things RMHFW is doing within our community. This wonderful organization helps families in need during trying times when their children are battling an illness. It truly is, “the House that Love Built.”

Many families travel far from home and spend several weeks or months to get treatment for their seriously ill or injured child – a long time to be away or to divide a family. And, for children facing a serious medical crisis, nothing seems scarier than not having mom and dad close by for love and comfort. The Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth (RMHFW) is that “home-away-from-home” for families so they can stay close by their hospitalized child at little or no cost. Our vision is to never turn away a family.

Our House is built on the simple idea that nothing else should matter when a family is focused on the health of their child – not where they can afford to stay, where they will get their next meal or where they will lay their head at night to rest. We believe that when a child is hospitalized the love and support of family is as powerful as the strongest medicine prescribed.

A recent Ronald McDonald House Charities Impact Study shows that accommodations provided by the Ronald McDonald House enhance pediatric patients’ quality of life and they improve family coping and resiliency during pediatric hospitalization.

When children must travel long distances to access top medical care, accommodations for families can be expensive or not readily available. RMHFW helps families stay close to their ill or injured child, increasing the caregivers’ ability to spend more time with their child, to interact with their clinical care team and to participate in critical medical care decisions. Parents are able to focus on the health of their child, rather than grocery shopping, cleaning or cooking meals. With private bedrooms, family rooms and kitchens, game rooms, playrooms, laundry rooms and an outdoor playground, families at RMHFW can establish normalcy at a time when their lives are anything but normal.

We believe when you change a child’s life, you change a family’s, which can change a community and, ultimately, the world.

Each year the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth opens its doors to hundreds of families from Texas and other states as they seek a place of refuge while their child is receiving medical treatment. In 2015, RMHFW served 994 families and provided nearly 14,000 night stays. Some families stay months and some stay only one day; however, the average length of stay was 14 days.

RMHFW is here to serve families regardless of their home location; in 2013 we eliminated the mileage requirement in order to serve the families with the greatest need. When your child is in critical condition, you want the best care possible and to be by their side – regardless if you live five or five hundred miles from the hospital.

The Shop Small Fort Worth Holiday Market benefiting RMHFW will be held on November 12th and 13th, 2016 and we could not be more excited! This two-day event will feature amazing local artists, small businesses and craftsman as well as have entertainment, food, drinks and even a special visit from the North Pole. We are thrilled to be working alongside some phenomenal partners like the RMHFW and M2G Ventures to pull off a fabulous event. Look for more details on the event coming soon. Tickets on sale starting October 1st.