People Gathered Saturday To Say Goodbye To The Ronald McDonald House In Corpus Christi

A building that has served as a home away from home for thousands of families since 1990. The house, which is walkable to the hospital, will be demolished to make room for a new, larger facility on the same site. Today is an opportunity for those families to kind of walk the halls, say goodbye, shut the doors one last time and get ready to build a bigger building for families who need us, said Michelle Horine, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Texas.

Horine, who has been with the organization for nearly 13 years, said the day was emotional. I've seen so many families have their best days and their worst days here, she said. To see these families come back and see how special this place was to them and still is to them that they spent their Saturday afternoon just to come by and swing on the swings one more time and play pool, walk through the halls, sign their doors; it's a pretty special day.

The current house has 25 rooms. It was originally built with 16 rooms in 1990, and 10 more were added in 2000. The new building will have at least 48 rooms an 80% increase in space with the possibility of adding more if funding allows. Horine said the need is urgent. More than 20 families a day are on a waitlist for the house's services. The need is there, she said. We're here to support them. The organization moved out of the current building in mid-June and relocated families to an interim location about five miles from the hospital. That temporary site can serve 32 families.

We are still operating. We are still taking care of families every day the way that we always do, Horine said. Some elements of the original building will carry over to the new one. The organization plans to remove the hardwood front doors and install them in the new house. We're going to use those in the new house and kind of pay homage to the families that we served over the years,

Horine said Donor plaques that line the current building's walls will be honored through a digital display board in the new facility. A cone structure on the property tied to the house's history will go into storage during construction and be reinstalled at a designated spot in the new building's plans. Construction on the new Ronald McDonald House is expected to last until summer 2027. The organization is still fundraising for the project. More information is available here.