First west suburban Ronald McDonald House opens in Winfield

WINFIELD – Ronald McDonald House Charities has opened its first west suburban house in Winfield.

The new 19,000-square-foot, two-story, craftsman-style house is located at 0N150 Winfield Road, across the street from Central DuPage Hospital. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Sunday and families are already staying there.

Mary Agnes Laguatan, vice president of human and capital resources for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana, said four families were scheduled to come into the home Monday, the day it opened.

The house features natural materials, including wood and rustic stone, and the DuPage River sits just west of the property.

The home has 12 bedrooms. Eight are standard rooms with two queen beds and the others are suites with a queen bed, twin bed and pull-out couch intended for families staying for a long period of time.

"If you're here a really long time, it's nice to have some extra space so you're not on top of each other," Laguatan said.

The house includes open spaces with lots of seating, as well as a large reading area, multiple television spaces and a game room.

"The idea being, we're going to want to give families some nice distractions," Laguatan said.

The home has an outdoor patio and fenced-in backyard, unlike the other Chicago area Ronald McDonald houses.

The project cost $6.3 million, according to Lauren Knazur, marketing and communications director with Ronald McDonald House Charities' Chicagoland and northwest Indiana group.

Ninety donors gave at least $10,000 to the project, and thousands more contributed smaller amounts, she said.

Before the home opened, more than 300 people signed up to volunteer in the house, either to sit at the welcome desk or cook meals for visitors.

"We're having trouble getting them on the schedule," Laguatan said.

The hospital hosted an open house last week and 475 community members attended.

"We were shocked. We expected about 100," she said. "There's a lot of excitement. And we have had nothing but good responses from the community."

In addition to families of children at Central DuPage Hospital, the house will also support those of children at the hospital's Proton Center in Warrenville, Delnor Hospital in Geneva and other area hospitals.