The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill serves 2,200 families yearly, providing cost-free housing to families with seriously ill or injured children. In March, the charity decided to partner with Victory Junction, a North Carolina-based camp designed for children with serious illnesses.
Victory Junction will host monthly activities for the families at the house, such as family game night, craft night and movie nights. The partnership is a part of the camp’s outreach program, called Reach, which brings camp activities to kids unable to visit.
“Victory Junction is designed to bring a smile to kids’ faces, to give them an opportunity to go to camp — and the Ronald McDonald House is providing housing to families with kids in the hospital,” said John Lemmon, outreach coordinator for Victory Junction.
“At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to help people.”
The Ronald McDonald House in Chapel Hill is currently undergoing an expansion that will double the house’s square footage. The expansion is expected to be finished by September.
The expansion will include 20 new long-term stay suites, four short-term guest rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a small child playroom, a chapel and a game room. It will total 20,000 square feet.
He said the goal of the Reach program is to bring smiles to families’ faces in the same way that the camp brings smiles to the faces of their campers.
It’s designed to give them a chance to relax, and the partnership between the two organizations was the perfect way to help that happen.
