Inside the playroom at the Oak Lawn Ronald McDonald House, Ashied Adenipekun’s eyes are focused on her 2-year-son Bruce, an animated ball of energy, but her mind is across the street inside Advocate Children’s Hospital, where her newborn daughter is recovering from heart surgery.
Adenipekun admits she is awash in emotions: fearful, nervous, sad and yet, oh, so grateful.
“It is very nice to be able to stay here,” she said, wiping away a tear. “I can just walk into the hospital, at 2 a.m., at 11 p.m., whenever I want to see her.”
If not for the Little House in the Wood, as the Oak Lawn nonprofit facility is called, Adenipekun, who lives on the North Side of Chicago, would have an hour-plus daily commute. That’s if she could get there at all. The Feb. 1 blizzard would have immobilized her, she said.
“I would have never been able to get here during that snowstorm,” she said. “So it is such a relief to be able to stay here. I just put on my boots and walked over.”
From her room, she could see the wing where Patricia was being tended to.
“Somehow I feel like she’s with me,” Adenipekun said.
Since it opened in 2008, the south suburban Ronald McDonald House, one of five in the Chicago area, has been housing families at their most desperate hour. Up to 16 families can stay each night in the L-shaped building that is meant to relieve some of the logistical stress of having a sick child.
“Anyone who has a child being treated for a pediatric illness at the nearby hospital and who lives outside a 10-mile radius is eligible to stay in the house,” said Anne Czarnecki, senior house director.
“We try to be a home away from home,” Czarnecki said.
In addition to the functional spaces – kitchen, bedrooms, laundry room – there are pockets of comfort worked into the home. Fireplaces, televisions, computers, an aquarium and a handicapped-accessible treehouse provide a peaceful backdrop to the often turbulent stories unfolding inside.
“We want parents to focus on their child, and we want families to stay together,” Czarnecki said. “We encourage siblings and grandparents to come to the house, too.”
Studies show that children heal 31 percent faster when their family are able to take an active part in their care, she said.
“That means being there, being well rested, having a full belly – being their best for their child,” she said.
Half of the families who stay at the facility have a child who is being treated for cardiac issues. Another 35 percent have a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit, she said.
The house is the very definition of comfort – there are soft colors, winding staircases, lots of natural light coming from windows that overlook mature trees. There’s even a butterfly garden in the summer.
But the more amazing story is what happens behind the scenes. Were it not for an army of volunteers and a sea of community support, the Oak Lawn Ronald McDonald House would not be able to function at near capacity year-round.
Thanks to financial support from local businesses – the aquarium and its upkeep were donated by Southwest Orthopedics; the hardwood staircase by Florida Plastics; and the toy closet by Coldwell Banker – and community fundraisers conducted by local Scouts, schools, churches and police/fire staffs, the house receives a steady flow of essentials, from paper towels and cleaning supplies to cash. Each family staying at the house is asked to pay $10 per night toward its care, but if that is a hardship, the fee is waived, Czarnecki said.
Among the more well-known fundraisers is the pop tab drive, which brings in about $40,000 a year, Czarnecki said.
And then there are the volunteers who signed on simply because they were looking for a way to help others.
Gwen Lewis lives in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham community. One day in 2010, she was visiting an aunt at the ManorCare facility across the street.
“I’d always wanted to help at a nonprofit, so I just wandered over and signed up,” Lewis said. For five years, she’s been coming to the house every other Tuesday to answer phones, manage the front desk, give tours and help turn down rooms.
“I do it because there’s a need,” she said.
No one understands that more than the families who’ve stayed at the house.
Lauren Walker and her husband David stayed there two years ago while their daughter Carolyn underwent heart surgery soon after she was born. The Walkers, who live in Lockport, stayed there again when the baby had a second operation five months later.
Sadly, Carolyn did not survive. But the Walkers were so moved by the experience that they vowed to give back. Now, three or four times a year, they and a group of friends cook dinner and provide baked goods at the house.
“It was an amazing experience,” Walker said. “It makes such a difference because you are spending the majority of your day in a medical/clinical environment but you get to go back to the home and there’s a nice homey environment waiting for you. It makes a world of difference.
“It makes us feel good to be able to give back for the (cumulative) month we stayed there,” she said.
Three weeks ago, the Walkers welcomed a son, Martin.
Like the Walkers, many individuals and groups routinely provide meals at the house.
On a recent weekday, representatives from the Alsip Coca-Cola plant supplied lunch for the house guests.
“This is my second time doing this,” said Brian Scapardine, market development manager. “It’s a good team-building exercise but I also have personal reasons.”
Two of his three children spent time in the children’s hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit right after they were born.
“We lived close enough that we didn’t need to stay at the house,” said Scapardine, who lives in Crestwood. “But I thought about what it must be like for families who have to travel every day to see their child.”
As is often the case, the Coca-Cola crew was not actually cooking. Rather than subject others to what could be limited culinary skills, Scapardine said, they contacted local vendors, including Hog Wild in Midlothian, to supply the food.
“We just picked it all up and will serve it,” he said.
In addition to barbecue pork, there was mostaccioli, salad and pizza on the buffet.
Another way employees of Coca-Cola, which partners with Ronald McDonald House, give back, he added, is by dropping pop tab collection boxes at various sales centers.
“Considering so many of the tabs come from our cans,” he said, “it’s a good thing to do.”
