Groundbreaking for Ronald McDonald House Expansion was Monday

The Ronald McDonald House will be expanding due to the increased demand for housing required by families of children being treated at Missoula Community Medical Center.

CEO of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Amy Peterson, said the expansion will double the facility’s capacity.

“Today, we broke ground to start construction and renovation on an expansion that will double our current house in size,” she said, and explained the purpose of the fundraising campaign that has been going on for several years. “Last year alone at the Ronald McDonald House we had to turn away 72 families simply because we didn’t have room, and at the same time, Community Medical Center was seeing that adults being treated at the Missoula Cancer Center didn’t have places to sleep either, so we partnered with Community Medical Center and we will expand the Ronald McDonald House by four rooms and then we will also have a wing designated for the adult cancer patients.”

Peterson said the budget for the renovation is $2.7 million and as of Monday over 82 percent of the goal had been reached. Peterson expects the addition to be completed in April of 2019.