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Hospital
Haven
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and McDonald's team
up to provide
families of ailing children with the comforts of home.
Ronald McDonald Family Room living area. |
Checking out the new Ronald McDonald Family Room in
the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at the
Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY (from left):
Bryan Colley, chairman of board of directors of the
Ronald McDonald Family Room; Ronald McDonald; patient
Michael Ticcony, 5; Barry Sternlicht, Starwood Hotels
& Resorts' executive chairman; Norman MacLeod,
executive vice president of Sheraton Hotels &
Resorts. |
As
a parent of a child with diabetes, Barry Sternlicht knows
firsthand that parents' natural desire to be with
their little ones during hospital stays can mean anxious
days followed by sleepless nights on hard chairs, cots or
even wheelchairs in the hall. And, as executive chairman
and chief design officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts,
he's in the business of making people feel at home.
So when state-of-the-art Maria Fareri Children's Hospital
opened recently in Valhalla, NY, he and his team at the
company's Westchester County headquarters quickly
found a way to bring their proven brand of hospitality to
what can be the most stressful time in a parent's
life: Its largest brand, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts,
donated the design and furnishings for the hospital's
new Ronald McDonald Family Room, the first of its kind on
the East Coast.
“They came along and we said, ‘This just makes
so much sense,'” said Bryan Colley, a Westchester-area
McDonald's owner-operator who serves as the Ronald
McDonald Family Room board president.
The volunteer partnership between Sheraton and the McDonald's
Hudson Valley Owners-Operators – the latter raised
about $750,000 for the $1 million project – is a brand-new
venture in the 30-year history of Ronald McDonald Houses
and Family Rooms.
The Westchester family room – in the process of interviewing
volunteers – will provide a restful haven within the
hospital for families of children undergoing treatment there.
Designed around a summer-vacation, shore-getaway theme,
the space includes a living room, dining room, kitchen,
exercise room and five unique bedroom suites. Ellen O'Neill,
Starwood's vice president of design, created the scheme,
making sure her work conformed to detailed hospital safety
requirements, while offering a restful, easygoing place
for families to live and reflect.
“It's not intimidating. It's easy-care,”
said O'Neill, who added she was honored to work on
a project that will help so many families in a time of stress.
“The whole thing here, as with Sheraton, is to bring
the idea of home to hospitality.”
The Starwood Foundation issued a $250,000 grant to the Maria
Fareri Children's Hospital that funded five pediatric
intensive-care-unit rooms for cardiac patients and a diabetes
informational component within the Ramsey Beirne Resource
Center.
Sheraton representatives and McDonald's owners, who
gathered for the family room's opening, said strengthening
their communities is a vital part of corporate citizenship.
Both said they hope to work together again on similar projects.
“It's just a perfect match,” Colley said.
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MEREDITH
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| Photo credit: Charlie Ruppman |
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