Aurora Ronald McDonald House

Cindy Pool

My daughter, son in law and 5 year grandson are staying here currently while their daughter born at 30 weeks is at the Children's hospital. I got to stay with them for a week visiting my new granddaughter and I can not say enough great things about the staff and how well run this facility is. The staff are so welcoming. The game room, kitchens, computer rooms and outdoor areas are clean and well stocked. The shuttle to and from the hospital also was great and always on time. This place is a blessing for families when they are taking care of their loved ones nearby.

Jonine Kee

So glad a place like this exist in times like these. We'll forever be grateful. Love the events and activities they offer.

Kira Jarmer

What an amazing charity. The RMH is a hybrid between a hotel and an apartment. The house seemed empty because everyone kept to themselves because of covid, but the shared spaces were decorated beautifully. The kitchens were organized with bins for each room to store their dry food, refrigerated food, and had a freezer shelf. Every room has two double beds (seemed a little smaller than a queen, so either full or queen size). Our room had a great memory foam mattress topper that was quite comfortable. They had a variety of pillows depending on your preference. The sheets and towels are washed and bleached by the hospital so they are thin and rough. If that's a problem you can always bring your own. We probably would have brought an extra comforter if we had known, but volunteers at the house make blankets, one for each family and we got one big enough for the foot of the bed, which was nice. The tp and Kleenex we also a little rough so we bought our own after a while. Again it's a mix between a hotel and apartment, so amenities are provided, but sometimes you have your own preferences and just want your own. They supply the rooms with donated hotel toiletries if you forget, but they are rather limited to shampoo, conditioner, lotion consistently, with intermittent other toiletries depending on what is donated. We couldn't get mouthwash or shaving cream. We brought out own toiletries from home, which I would recommend. They have a very extensive library of kids games, videos, books etc. There is a wagon if saving loaner books in the hallway. There is laundry access you can sign up for. They have Tide pods and dryer sheets. We didn't really explore the other floors, but did see that there were about two catered dinners a week. Each room has its own thermostat. It's nice that the sink is outside of the toilet and shower room such that someone can be brushing their teeth while others are showering or going to the bathroom. They have a list at checkout so that each guest cleans their own room including bleaching the bathroom and vacuuming etc. So plan for extra time when you check out day. During covid, they limit that people that can be in your room to the exact people that are on your hospital visitor list. If your visitor names change at the hospital then only those people can stay in the room. This gets complicated if family members are rotating in and out. If grandparents come up and only one is on the visitor list the other grandparent can't stay with you in the room so they end up having to get a hotel anyway. You always have to work through the social worker at the hospital to be approved for the waiting list for the room, or for what visitors are on your list and allowed to stay in the room. Currently o other guests were allowed in the house unless they were registered in your room. This adds a level of complexity that can be a bit slow to get things done, however it keeps the house very safe. The hospital district seems safe, but going a block in either direction, such as to the grocery store, puts you right in a high crime area. So it was nice to have security and feel very safe at the Ronald McDonald House. If you do need to get groceries, I'd recommend going south into nicer neighborhoods. At the closest King Supers, we dodged a fight that broke out in the parking lot and loiterers pick pocketing outside the entrances. There are a lot of cute restaurants with online ordering and curbside pickup near the hospital that were great quality. There were a few things wrong mechanically with our room, but they put in a service request right away and it was fixed while we were at the hospital.