A Home Away From Home

          Eastern North Carolina is a region in which families are still the center of life for many people. This becomes especially evident when someone has to spend time in a hospital. Relatives, from a second cousin twice removed to half sisters and great-great aunts, feel bound to visit the patient. One time a visit to the hospital is truly mandatory is when the sick person is a child. Family members visit even more frequently than with adult patients, and often come in daily for several days.As PCMH’s service area grew, the distances traveled by these visitors became difficult to manage. It was necessary to provide low-cost, comfortable accommodations for these people from outside Greenville. A Ronald McDonald House appeared to be the solution.

There was a public groundbreaking on July 25, 1985, for a Ronald McDonald house—a home-away-from- home—for parents of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit at PCMH, and for children who were being treated for cancer in the pediatric hematology-oncology unit, and their families. The house was located directly across Moye Boulevard from the hospital and medical school, on a two-acre plot donated by Pitt County. The site was chosen for the convenience of families visiting at the Children’s Hospital.

Children who had been patients at the medical center’s intensive care and hematology-oncology units carried out the groundbreaking. There was a continuing campaign to raise funds, with a goal of $1 million by the end of 1985. More than $500,000 had already been raised.

Father’s Day came on June 21 in 1987. On that day the Ronald McDonald House of Eastern North Carolina opened to receive its first guests. These were parents and families of children being treated for chronic diseases such as cancer, renal failure and cystic fibrosis; or heart disease, serious infection, premature birth, and other conditions requiring critical care.

The public dedication ceremony was held in the Brody Auditorium of the ECU School of Medicine. From 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the house itself.

Dr. C. Tate Holbrook, director of pediatric hematology and oncology at the hospital and medical school, said, “I hope everyone will come out and see for themselves what a vital asset the house will be to our region.” He also remarked, “We began this campaign over four years ago, and it’s just so gratifying to be able to share this moment with all the people of eastern North Carolina whom this Ronald McDonald House will serve.” Nearly three-fourths of the capital campaign goal of $1.2 million for the facility was already in hand.

John A. Allison IV, president of Branch Banking and Trust, who was chairman of the campaign, said, “We are pleased with the financial support we have received from school children, civic and church organizations, individuals and businesses large and small.” There was still a major job to be done to raise another $300,000 to meet the cost of building and furnishing the house. Pitt County had provided the two-acre plot on which the house was located. McDonald’s restaurants gave $225,000; $100,000 came from the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust of Winston-Salem, BB&T donated $50,000, and Belk-Tyler Stores $15,000. The Pitt-Greenville School System sponsored a “Buy-A-Mini-Brick” campaign that raised $18,000. Residents of Kenansville had donated $25,000 from a trust for Ashley Quinn, a child who died while waiting for a liver transplant. Bill and Sally Freelove, owner-operators of a number of McDonald’s franchises in the east, were quiet but effective fund-raisers and donors to the house.

Cherokee Sanford Group had provided bricks, and carpeting had come from DuPont and Fieldcrest Mills. The bedrooms in the house had been furnished and decorated by sponsors, each of whom donated around $5,000. A wall in the foyer designed by Susan Clellan, a sculptor from Winston-Salem, honored major contributors.
“I wish it were possible to list the source of every dollar raised and every moment of the volunteer effort directed toward this cause,” said Sue Moffitt, president of the Ronald McDonald House.

The house, whose construction had begun in June 1986, had 20 bedrooms in its 15,000 square feet. There were also a great room, a dining room, a double kitchen, a quiet room, a playroom, a teen game room, a laundry room, and an office. Four bedrooms were designed to accommodate handicapped guests. There was a downstairs apartment for the resident house manager, whose job was making sure everything ran smoothly, 24 hours a day.
The house was planned to have a home-like atmosphere. A number of different pastimes were provided for the guests. There was an entertainment center in the great room where residents could listen to music or watch videotapes. A book collection donated by Waldenbooks included both best sellers and classics.

The Celebrity Golf Classic

In September 1984, the Eastern Carolina Celebrity Golf Classic had been started to raise money for the house, and future Golf Classic proceeds would be used for house operating expenses. In 1987, the Classic had already raised $100,000. On July 20, Joe Clark, 1988 chairman of the event, announced that it would have a new honorary chairman, Michael Jordan, and would move from September to June. Clark anticipated that with the changes the Classic, then in its fourth year, could continue its growth and benefit to the Ronald McDonald House.

In the spring there was less competition for recruiting celebrities. Holding the tournament in June would make attendance possible for football players, baseball players and basketball players who would begin practice in the fall. By avoiding conflicts with other sporting events, it should also increase the number of spectators, as well as be more accessible to media representatives. Clark also felt that a better turnout of players would make more people want to attend. His prediction was completely accurate.

He expected Michael Jordan to be a major asset, as a native of the region, being from Wilmington, and an enthusiastic golfer. His fame as a basketball player at UNC and with the Chicago Bulls, a National Basketball Association team, were strong advantages. Jordan’s influence served to attract a broad array of celebrities as well as local golfers. In 1989, the tournament was renamed the Michael Jordan Celebrity Golf Classic.

The Classic grew steadily, and became more and more successful. In its 16th year, 1999, it had grown from a one-celebrity tournament with a $100 entry fee to one with more than 40 celebrities and top sponsorship levels over $30,000. More than 1,000 volunteers were working for the Celebrity Golf Classic each year. In 1999 it brought in over $250,000, making the total to date raised for the Ronald McDonald Houses of North Carolina more than $1.8 million.

                                                                       Summer Camps

The hospital and medical school provide other benefits to sick children. Among these are three summer camps that were set up for cancer patients, for juvenile onset diabetics, and for patients with sickle cell anemia.

Camp Rainbow, sponsored by the medical school’s pediatrics department, the therapeutic recreation department at PCMH, Pitt County United Way, and private donations, provides an annual summer retreat for young patients of the hematology-oncology unit of the hospital. The camp is open to patients between 6 and 18 years old who are being treated or have been treated in the unit, and their brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. The fee to attend the camp is based on the family’s ability to pay. A portion of the funds for the camp comes from a Walk-Jog-A-Thon held each spring by medical students, with paying sponsors for each runner or walker.

The four-day Camp Rainbow summer retreat has been held from its inception on the shore of the Neuse River in Pamlico County near Arapahoe. Camp Don-Lee provided the site for it during a time when it was not running its own regular summer sessions. Some of the counselors from the regular sessions stay on for Camp Rainbow, to assist with the children’s activities. In the camp’s first year, 1985, there were 29 counselors for 40 children.

Dr. Holbrook, head of the section on pediatric hematology-oncology in the Department of Pediatrics, organized Camp Rainbow. From the first, he has stayed during the entire retreat, playing with his patients or relaxing on a screened porch where he could watch them at play. It is a special pleasure for the children and their camp counselors, who were mostly teenaged, to fling Holbrook, fully clothed, into the pond.

Holbrook remarked that he felt the camp benefittted his staff as much as it did the children. Physicians and nurses from the hospital attend to counsel and to give some of the children their daily chemotherapy treatments. It makes it possible for the patients to see a different, more human side of the people who regularly give them spinal taps and painful injections.

Pediatrician Dr. James Gutai, Holbrook’s friendly rival, established Camp Needles in the Pines, with the cooperation of PCMH nurse Betty Goodson and the Careteret County Diabetes Support Group. The first four-day session was held over July 4, 1984, at Camp Albemarle, a Presbyterian summer camp. The sessions were later moved to the 4-H’s Camp Mitchell, and in 1991 they began meeting at Camp Bonner, the Boy Scout camp near Chocowinity.

Camp Needles in the Pines, attended by juvenile-onset diabetics from eight to fourteen years old, gives the children an opportunity for safe fun with appropriate healthcare personnel to ensure they receive their medication and proper diet. With almost one-on-one counseling—counselors are usually diabetics themselves—they learn about managing their condition. Counselors come from all over North Carolina, and there is even one regularly-attending counselor, a nurse at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, who is the mother of a diabetic child.

Camp Hope was set up in 1985 for patients with sickle cell anemia from five to 18 years old. Dr. Holbrook started it, with child life specialist Jackie Sauls, nurse-clinician Diana Gordon, and data coordinator Cynthia Brown. The camp, held also at Camp DonLee, began with about 50 children, and in 1999 had 84 attendees. The patients spend two weeks at the camp, enjoying water sports, crafts, music, and dramatic arts, along with education and support sessions with volunteer counselors. These include physicians, nurses, social workers, and child life specialists. Attendees are encouraged when they reach age 18 to become counselors themselves, and many return each year to assist with the children.