Family Comes First for Englestad Foundation
Las Vegas, NV, March 3, 2021 – Families staying at the Las Vegas Ronald McDonald House, as well as children receiving dental treatment aboard the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, are feeling the love from the Engelstad Foundation, who recently awarded Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas® with a $250,000 grant. The majority of the grant will be used to provide a ‘home away from home’ for families at the Ronald McDonald House, with the remainder being used to provide dental services and education to children from low-income families throughout Nevada.
Since 2012, the Engelstad Foundation has donated more than $1.7 million dollars to Ronald McDonald House Charities© of Greater Las Vegas. All of that tender loving care has impacted the lives of more than 105,000 children and their families.
For 23 years now, families in medical crisis who must travel to Las Vegas have sought comfort under the roof of what’s fondly called The House That Love Built — so that they may remain by their children’s hospital bedside and directly engaged in their little’s one’s medical treatment.
“At the Ronald McDonald House, we firmly believe the best medicine any sick or injured child can have is the love and support of their family,” said Alyson McCarthy, CEO of RMHC of Greater Las Vegas. “The Engelstad Foundation makes that possible by providing critical grant funding to help cover the actual costs of housing, meals, transportation, as well as other basic needs, so our families can focus on what’s most important – the recovery of their children in the hospital.” Since opening its doors in 1998, the House has served 5,352 families for a total of 65,978 nights.
“Families facing medical crises find comfort in Ronald McDonald House Charities’ various programs,” said Kris Engelstad McGarry, Trustee of the Engelstad Foundation. “Through these lifelines, families can stay close to their children as they receive critical pediatric care. Ronald McDonald House Charities’ mission to improve the health and well-being of children in our community is commendable and we are proud to support it.”
The Englestad Foundation also supports the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a state-of-the-art mobile dental unit that travels throughout the state to provide critical dental services to uninsured children from low-income families in Nevada’s rural communities and inner-city neighborhoods of Las Vegas.
“Dental issues that are left untreated can become very serious medical issues,” said McCarthy. “The Care Mobile often provides the only access to quality dental care for these children who live in frontier communities, where no dentists reside.”
In 2020, Care Mobile staff provided $498,000 in dental treatment to more than 800 children across the state.
“I’m so grateful to have been able to bring my daughters here,” said the mom of two Care Mobile patients. “My 6-year-old really needed dental care, and it was affecting her daily life, but we could not find a doctor that would see her without health insurance.”
The Engelstad Foundation also provided funding to help build Las Vegas’ first and only hospital-based Ronald McDonald Family Room. This “mini-house,” is located right on the grounds of Sunrise Hospital, so parents with children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can grab something to eat or drink, take a nap, shower, or just relax for a few minutes away from the critical care environment without ever having to leave the hospital. Since opening in 2016, more than 50,000 parents and children have visited the Family Room.
