Lake County CEO Tim Keller and head of RMHC Tammy Forrester following the announcement of the building of a 12 family Ronald McDonald House in Prince Albert (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Ronald McDonald House

Co-op donation kick starts Ronald McDonald house build campaign

Aug 10, 2023 | 3:19 PM

Kasey Halkett, age five, has spent over a hundred days using the Victoria Hospital and her family has made much use of the Family Room sponsored by Ronald McDonald House Charities. She made the official first put of the Prince Albert Red Jacket Classic today. (video/Susan McNeil)

Prince Albert will have its own Ronald McDonald House with construction planned to start in one year and it was a donation of land from Lake Country Co-op that got it started.

The house will be about half a block away from the Victoria Hospital and cost about $8 million to build.

“Lake Country Co-op is very pleased, very humbled to be able to donate 4.4 acres just east of the Victoria Hospital,” said CEO Tim Keller of Lake Country Co-op. “It’s a half a block away, so it’s perfectly situated.”

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Fundraising for the project started on Thursday with the announcement of the goal to raise $22 million as the charity is also planning to build a new home in Regina.

The Prince Albert facility will house 12 families and take about 20 months to build, once construction has started.

Tammy Forrester, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Saskatchewan, said the organization knew that more could be done to help families of sick children.

Victoria Hospital currently has a space where families of hospitalized children can find food, laundry services and a place to get away and many families from Prince Albert and the rest of northern Saskatchewan have made use of the room.

“Since the family room inception in 2016, we have served 3933 families who have had multiple visits to the family room daily,” said Forrester.

They have served 3,500 meals in the last two years and since expanding the food program to the NICU, have added 1,700 meals for that location.

The charity commissioned a medical needs feasibility study which showed that only a portion of the need so they decided to do more.

“The reality is, after full assessment that we are currently only serving 20 per cent of the province’s need and we can do better, but we have miles to go,” Forrester said.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow