SAN ANTONIO \u2013 For families whose children need medical care far from home, a Ronald McDonald House can offer more than a place to sleep. <\/p>\n
In San Antonio, the homes provide free lodging and everyday comforts while families focus on treatment.<\/p>\n
Amor and her 2-year-old son Leonardo, from Eagle Pass, have stayed at a San Antonio Ronald McDonald House for 395 days. Leonardo has had two surgeries to treat a heart condition and is waiting for a third.<\/p>\n
The houses offer bedrooms, play areas, laundry facilities and a large kitchen where families, and often volunteers, can prepare meals.<\/p>\n
That kitchen is where 11-year-old Juan Carlos and his family gathered during a stay in San Antonio for his intensive therapies. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps people with disabilities, people who can\u2019t walk,\u201d said Juan Carlos. <\/p>\n
His family travels from about two hours outside of Los Angeles and has made the trip to San Antonio four times. Each stay lasts about three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like you\u2019re at home,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels calm, safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liz Medina, director of operations for Ronald McDonald House of San Antonio, said families have come from countries including Honduras, Turkey and Poland. She said the houses are a \u201chome away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The free lodging can also ease a significant expense. Travis Pearson, the organization\u2019s CEO, said a family could otherwise spend thousands on a local hotel during a 30-day stay.<\/p>\n
That financial relief allows families to focus on their child\u2019s care, Pearson said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen families can be engaged at that level, when their kids are in the hospital, the kids tend to go home sooner, and the kids don\u2019t come back for re-admission,\u201d Pearson said. <\/p>\n
San Antonio has three Ronald McDonald Houses, each with 21 bedrooms. <\/p>\n
Two are located in the Medical Center, while the third is housed within Christus Children\u2019s Hospital downtown.<\/p>\n
McDonald\u2019s funds about 20% of the organization\u2019s mission; the rest relies on community support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this place wasn\u2019t here, we would not have been able to come,\u201d Juan Carlos said.<\/p>\n
In addition to monetary donations, Medina said volunteers can help by preparing meals, assembling snack bags for families heading to the hospital, donating blankets or leading activities for children.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never feel alone,\u201d Amor said.<\/p>\n
Read also:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 For families whose children need medical care far from home, a Ronald McDonald House can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[160485,584,6527,160484,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-474204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-christus-childrens-hospital","tag-health","tag-ksatkids","tag-ronald-mcdonald-houses","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}