Thekle Charles, left, talks with her daughter Janelle Charles, right, as they recall their experiences at the Ronald McDonald House during Janelle’s cancer treatment at Jackson Memorial, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Miami.
Carl Juste
cjuste@miamiherald.com
A $3 million donation from billionaire philanthropist and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has put the Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Florida one step closer to opening a multimillion-dollar complex that will provide free temporary lodging to hundreds of families whose children are undergoing costly and often lengthy medical treatments and procedures at South Florida hospitals.
The seven-story complex, which is currently under construction on the Miami campus of Jackson Memorial Hospital, is expected to nearly double the charity’s existing housing capabilities, reduce the 14-day waitlist for a room and provide free lodging to more than 420 families annually.
The charity has raised $28 million out of its $33 million fundraising goal through the help of Griffin and other donors, including the University of Miami, BADIA, McDonald’s South Florida Operators Association, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors and the Batchelor Foundation.
“Excellent medical care is strengthened when families are able to be together,” Griffin, who moved his Citadel empire to Miami in 2022, said in a statement. “The extraordinary new campus of the Ronald McDonald House will let families stay together during the moments that matter most.”
This is the latest health-related donation the Daytona Beach-born Griffin has made since moving to South Florida. Last year, the philanthropist donated $15 million to help support Mount Sinai Medical Center’s new cancer center in Miami Beach and expand cancer services at its west Hialeah medical center. He’s donated $50 million toward research and developing new cancer treatments at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, with a similar $50 million donation to Baptist Health South Florida for research and care into Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. In 2023, he donated $25 million to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to help fund its new surgical tower and support the hospital’s four major institutes related to the brain, cancer and blood disorders, the heart and orthopedics.
The Ronald McDonald building, which will be named after Griffin, is expected to open in early 2027, just a few steps away from Holtz Children’s Hospital. It’ll be larger than the nonprofit’s current 31-room home, which will eventually close once the new building is ready for move-in.
A rendering of what the Griffin Family Campus will look like. Courtesy of Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Florida
The new 60,000-square-foot house will have 54 private rooms that can hold up to four people, with private bathrooms and a variety of amenities, including laundry rooms on every floor, private family kitchens, a business center with computers for working parents, a large communal kitchen for volunteers to cook hot meals for the families, a rooftop and other communal spaces for families to gather.
And families like Thekle Charles’ are excited for what the charity can do with the new space. Charles and her daughter Janelle, 17, temporarily moved to Miami from Antigua years ago for Janelle’s cancer treatment. They ended up living at Ronald McDonald’s on-campus home for two years.
“I don’t know if I personally would have survived” without the Ronald McDonald House, said Charles, who described the relief she felt at not having to worry about paying for pricey hotels or cooking while caring for her daughter. Volunteers cook hot meals for the families staying at the home, and the kitchen is always stocked with easy meals families can cook themselves, too.
Janelle, who was declared cancer-free in 2019, returned this week with her mom for an emergency visit at Jackson to rule out a potential sign of cancer in her ribs after doctors in Antigua spotted something concerning.
Thekle Charles, right, describes the challenges she faced after her daughter, Janelle Charles, left, was diagnosed with cancer, at the Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Miami. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com
For them, the Ronald McDonald House became more than just a place to sleep near the hospital. It’s where they made friends and created a community with other families. People ask each other how their children are doing. They’re able to share their concerns and wins with others who can relate.
“I knew that I wasn’t alone,” said Janelle, who began undergoing treatment at age 8 for an advanced form of osteosarcoma. The rare bone cancer is the most common bone cancer in children and teens.
The experience the Charleses have had at the home is what the charity wants to recreate for even more families in the new building, according to Soraya Rivera-Moya, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Florida.
“Our current facility has been here for 42 years, almost 43, and it’s time to grow,” Rivera-Moya told the Miami Herald. “We want to eliminate that waiting list that we currently have to be able to help as many families as possible.”
Ronald McDonald House Executive Director Soraya Rivera-Moya, shares the contents of the welcome bags that are left for families inside each room, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Miami. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com
Demand at the Ronald McDonald House has grown as South Florida hospitals expand specialty care for complex and sometimes life-threatening pediatric conditions, including cancer, organ transplantation, birth defects and other conditions.
Miami-Dade and Broward are home to four pediatric hospitals: Nicklaus Children’s Hospital near South Miami, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, the Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at the Broward Medical Health Center in Fort Lauderdale and Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami, just a few steps away from Ronald McDonald’s new housing complex.
The nonprofit services all of South Florida and receives referrals from Holtz Children’s Hospital, University of Miami Health System, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. The most common conditions requiring families to stay at the house are pediatric cancer, premature and high-risk pregnancies, organ transplants, and ophthalmology and audiology conditions.
The house currently serves 225 families annually and has supported over 30,000 families since opening in 1982. And the charity says it can’t keep up — more than 100 families are turned away each year due to lack of space.
Every family has different needs. Some only need a room for a few days. Others need to stay there for months or, in the case of the Charleses, years. In 2024, the average stay for families was 48 days, with stays becoming longer, according to the nonprofit. The longest family stay in 2024 was 366 days. In 2025, the average stay for families was 32 nights, and the longest family stay was 738 nights.
For Jose Acevedo, one of the most important gifts the Ronald McDonald House has given him and his family is a “home away from home.” Right now, Acevedo is staying at the nonprofit’s current on-campus home while his 5-year-old stepdaughter recovers from a bone marrow transplant.
Jose Acevedo fights back tears as he recalls the importance of the Ronald McDonald House after his stepdaughter was diagnosed with cancer and treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Miami. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com
Acevedo and his wife, who took time off work to focus on their daughter’s cancer treatment, initially stayed in a nearby hotel for the first 49 days of her treatment. But costs quickly started adding up for the Boca Raton family.
“We started with our savings, with credit cards,” Acevedo recalled. Within 10 days, they had spent $3,000 for a hotel that they were only using for occasional sleep. Then, the hospital’s social worker referred them to the Ronald McDonald House. Within two weeks, they were given a free private room in the building.
“This was able to keep our family together. … It’s been definitely a blessing, where we could ride it out all together and be supportive of each other,” Acevedo said.
If you want to donate
To help support construction of the new house, visit rmhcsouthflorida.org/capital-campaign-about.
To support the nonprofit’s mission, you can donate at your local McDonald’s or online. There’s a variety of other ways to help support the nonprofit too, including providing meals for families. Visit the nonprofit’s website to learn more.
Letters, thank-you cards and other notes of gratitude are displayed on a board at the Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Miami.The seven-story $33 million complex, which is currently under construction on the Miami campus of Jackson Memorial Hospital, is expected to nearly double the charity’s existing housing capabilities and provide free lodging to more than 420 families annually. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.
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