Countywide : McDonald House Opens Wednesday

The beds haven’t been made and the cupboards are still bare, but by Wednesday the Ronald McDonald House will be ready for its grand opening.

It will be a home away from home for families of seriously ill children at Childrens Hospital of Orange County and other area hospitals. Children undergoing outpatient treatment may stay there as well.

Families will pay $5 a night to stay in the powder-blue and white, three-story house on Batavia Street in Orange, said Herb Watson, executive director of the house. Those who cannot afford the fee will stay for free.

Families will be referred to the house by social service workers at local hospitals. About 8% to 10% of children treated at CHOC for serious illnesses live outside the area, Watson said.

The Orange County Ronald McDonald house will join 125 others worldwide, five of them in California.

But it will be the first in the world to open debt-free, thanks to more than 400 individuals and organizations who have donated money, time and supplies, Watson said. Donations are still being received, and the house is registered with the Broadway’s bridal registry.

The actual cost of buying the land and building and supplying the house would have been about $2.4 million

But more than $1 million was donated in goods and services, and the other million in cash came from donors, including Mary Moore Young of Fullerton, who gave $500,000 in memory of her husband, William. He founded Golden State Food Co., a food supplier for McDonald’s.

The mattresses, the kitchen appliances, washers and dryers, the floor covering and much of the furniture was donated.

The house has 20 bedrooms, a living room, dining room, library, play room, sanctuary, back yard with playground equipment and apartment for the live-in manager, Martha Winslow.