In May of 1985, the Phoenix House opened as the 81st House in the ever-increasing network of Ronald Houses. When McDonald's restaurants in the Philadelphia area joined the Eagles to create the first Ronald McDonald House, a McDonald's Shamrock Shake promotion was held to raise a large part of the funds to purchase the House. Since then, each Ronald McDonald House has included McDonald's restaurants in the community as a major, initial fundraising source. Here parents can meet and share their concerns and anxieties with others who understand, and where children can play and forget, even for a short time, their illnesses and problems. Families unable to make a donation toward the cost of the room stay with us at no charge.
Families bring their own food, cook their own meals, come and go on their own time schedules.
We operate with a small staff, supplemented by the help of many volunteers. Thousands of volunteer hours given enable us to operate so economically. Because Duke is one of a small number of hospitals doing pediatric bone marrow transplantation, we provide four rooms that are special suites with their own kitchens, allowing these patients to be isolated. Children of one half or our families are able to stay at the Ronald House with their parents and have their illnesses treated on an outpatient basis. In other cases, the seriously ill child is hospitalized and the parents stay at the house.