01 Sep September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

The history of the CNY Ronald McDonald House is rooted in caring for families with children treated at the Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders at Upstate Hospital. Over four decades ago, a group of cancer patients’ parents saw the need for a Ronald McDonald House in Syracuse.

Families traveling from outside of the Syracuse area for specialized treatment were often found sleeping in the waiting areas or in their cars so they could be near their seriously ill children. In the mid-1970s, the Children’s Special Needs Fund was formed by doctors and parents to fund a playroom at the 5C pediatric oncology clinic and to help out-of-town families with housing and food.

In the early 1980s, the Children’s Special Needs Fund and Ronald McDonald House joined forces under the umbrella of the “CNY Ronald McDonald House.” During the renovation and construction of the first CNY Ronald McDonald House, volunteers from the Children’s Special Needs Fund, who were also parents of cancer patients, led a grassroots fundraising effort and were vital to the core mission of the new house.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1982, the original CNY Ronald McDonald House opened its doors at 1027 E. Genesee Street and welcomed its first guests from the Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders. The house continued to financially support the 5C clinic and the child life specialist at the 7H hematology/oncology in-patient unit by providing more than $1 million in program funding in the years that followed.

Today, families with seriously ill children continue to travel to Syracuse for medical care, and when they do, we are here for them thanks to the compassion, generosity and kindness of a special group of concerned parents from years past.