Grant will help pay for new Ronald McDonald House in Wichita

A local McDonald’s franchisee is using a prominent grant as a springboard to finance a new Ronald McDonald House in Wichita.

Bob Lane of El Dorado was awarded the $100,000 Gerry Newman McTLC Award of Excellence in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Ill., earlier this month for his ongoing philanthropic support of youth programs around Kansas.

The award is given annually to someone worldwide for their philanthropic efforts, and past winners include former first lady Betty Ford, Colin Powell, Ben Carson, Jim Henson, Paul Newman and Danny Glover.

“It’s a pretty cool award,” said Lane, who was the youngest McDonald’s franchisee in the nation when he opened a store in Arkansas City in 1975 at the age of 27. “It’s pretty humbling.”

The recipients are allowed to choose the children’s charity the grant goes to, and Lane chose the Ronald McDonald House, which provides a place to stay for families whose children are receiving long-term medical care.

Lane led the efforts to build the first two Ronald McDonald Houses in Wichita. This grant was “coincidentally convenient,” he said, because a new, expanded Ronald McDonald House is about to be built in the old Health Strategies building across the street from Wesley Children’s Hospital.

A capital campaign for the $3 million project was announced Friday night. Lane and his wife, Jen, are matching the grant with $100,000 of their own money.

“We’re just getting started now,” Lane said.

There are 20 total rooms in two Ronald McDonald houses in Wichita now, but the 10 rooms next to Wesley in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood are in a house built in 1900.

Though it was gutted and remodeled in 1982, the rooms and bathrooms are still too small for modern-day use, said Susan Smythe, a spokeswoman for Ronald McDonald House Charities Wichita.

“It’s always full, always with a waiting list,” Smythe said.

People have to live at least 30 miles away from Wichita to be able to use rooms at a Ronald McDonald House. Use of the rooms has been expanded to include families whose children are going to Heartspring, using mental health services or having outpatient dental surgery.

Women with high-risk pregnancies are also using Ronald McDonald House rooms so they’re close to a hospital.

“It’s been a lifesaver to some families that they’re right here when they deliver,” Smythe said. “As long as the child is still at risk, they can stay.”

The bedrooms in the Sleepy Hollow house have two twin beds, but it’s common to need rollaway beds and air mattresses so families can stay together.

A second Ronald McDonald House three miles away near Via Christi Hospital St. Francis also has 10 rooms. But with the opening of Wesley Children’s Hospital, Smythe said, St. Francis is sending serious pediatric cases there.

“Even to be three miles away is really far away when you want to go see your baby at 2 in the morning,” Smythe said.

The two current houses will merge into the new space in the renovated Health Strategies building. The new Ronald McDonald House will use about 20,000 square feet, with office space elsewhere.

The two projects will be “on parallel paths,” Lane said, with construction projected to be completed in 15 to 18 months.

Architectural drawings have not yet been completed, but organizers are eager to start the campaign.

“We can’t wait,” Lane said. “We’ve got to go raise money.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Grant will help pay for new Ronald McDonald House in Wichita."