Our HistoryThe Kansas City Chapter of RMHC was established by a group of committed volunteers in 1980 that opened the 27th Ronald McDonald House in 1981 with capacity for eleven families. RMHC - Kansas City has operated facilities serving children & families for 30 years. Today, we operate two Houses adjacent to Hospital Hill in Kansas City, MO. The Ronald McDonald House on Cherry Street, located at 2501 Cherry Street, opened in 1988. In 2006, RMHC increased its capacity to serve families when it opened a new Ronald McDonald House in Longfellow Park located at 2502 Cherry Street. Together, the Houses provide temporary lodging for 60 families each night while their children undergo vital medical care. Twelve suites at the Longfellow House allow us to serve immuno-suppressed children and their families (i.e., organ and bone marrow transplants). Our homes offer a warm and welcoming place to sleep, as well as full kitchen facilities, laundry facilities, living rooms, and recreation areas to provide a homey environment where families may relax away from the stresses of the hospital and meet other families experiencing similar crises. Our Ronald McDonald Family Room, located within Children’s Mercy Hospital, opened its doors in March of 1997 bringing the comforts of home inside the hospital, providing support and respite for in-patient pediatric families. The Family Room offers seven sleeping/napping rooms to families with a child in the Intensive Care Units, and a kitchen, showers, quiet room, family conversation area with television, and a small reference library. Each day, Children’s Mercy nursing staff from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Bone Marrow Transplant, and Burn Unit work closely with us to triage which seven families are in the most critical situation for that evening, and need to spend the night at the Family Room. The concept of a Ronald McDonald Family Room was pioneered in Kansas City and, since its inception, has spread to over 150 worldwide.