Newsletter
Catastrophe at the Family Room
WATER DAMAGE CLOSES
THE RONALD McDONALD FAMILY ROOM
The Ronald McDonald Family Room, located in the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, was forced to evacuate families and shut down in the middle of the night on January 3. The Family Room suffered catastrophic damage when a sprinkler pipe burst in the ceiling at 2:00 that morning.
Executive Director Karen Ryan and House Manager Kathy Lebron headed for the Family Room immediately, only to find that all guest families had been replaced by local firefighters and emergency crews. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were pouring into the Family Room—and at least three inches of water had already pooled on the floor.
Construction crews cordoned off the entire area and demolished ceilings, walls and anything else that was—or even could have been—affected by water damage.
Designed and furnished by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, our beautiful and comfortable “home away from home” was taken to the studs in the walls. What looked like a charming New England Bed and Breakfast is now a construction site.
And so, for as long as it takes to rebuild, the Family Room will be out of service to those most in need: families of critically ill or traumatically injured children. It is for their sake that we hope the Family Room is rebuilt and reopened as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, we are only able to receive monetary donations. We will definitely need donations of all kinds when we are up and running again. But for now, wish-list items, gifts-in-kind, and Meals 4 Families are on hold.
If you wish to help us at this time, here is where we can use it most:
**Hold your own fundraiser at your school, church or community group.
**Collect pull tabs, bring them to your local metal salvage facility and donate the proceeds to RMFR.
**Go to BedBathBeyond.com and collect items on our registry.
Please send all monetary donations to:
Ronald McDonald Family Room
PO Box 299
Valhalla, NY 10595
We are so appreciative of your support. With your faithful partnership, we have hope for the future and know we will come out on the other side of this BETTER THAN BEFORE!!!
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