CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Ronald McDonald House is looking to expand.
Currently, it can serve 25 families at a time and right now there are nine families on the wait list.
In order to meet the overwhelming need for it's free room and board the organization is looking to tear down its current facility and builda brand new five-story complex in it's place.
Between August of 2022 and 2023, 274 families were able to stay there for an average of 42 nights. Over the past thee years, around 536 families were turned away because there was no room.
Ronald McDonald House CEO, Michelle Horine, said that's why a new facility is going to be built.
The multi-million dollar project will allow the organization to house 45 families instead of the 25 it can handle now.
”We can break ground when we have 80 percent of our funding secured,” Horine said
So, the search is on for donors.
”We are never going to build another Ronald McDonald House in our lifetime so we want people who want to be part of something really special like Ronald McDonald House,” Horine said.
Montserrat Caballero is from the valley and has been staying at the Ronald McDonald House since November because her fifth and youngest child, David, has been at the NICU at Driscoll for a series of brain surgeries.
”I don’t know if it would’ve been possible for me to be here like 100 percent with my baby in Corpus if I did not have the help of the Ronald McDonald house.” Caballero said.
The new facility is going to be 48,000 square feet and will include things like a teen zone, outdoor kitchen and barbecue, plus a rooftop garden. The organization has already raised $5 million which is around a fourth of the cost.
Donors around the area are among those being contacted to help out.
”You work with your local corporations and local foundations as well,” Horine said
Those families like the Caballeros definitely support the project because they know what it’s meant to them and how important it will be for other families in the future.
If all goes as planned, the project could be completed either next year or in 2026.
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