MINNEAPOLIS -- On any given night, there are 48 families with children staying at the Ronald McDonald House near the University of Minnesota's East Bank campus, waiting for or recovering from surgery, or dealing with an ongoing medical condition. Those families see their children stay for an average of 150 nights, looking for ways to get through the day and just be a kid. Some kids are able to play on the playground on the west side of the facility, but because of physical handicaps, many kids at the Ronald McDonald House were left watching.
When CEO Jill Evenocheck was looking to build a handicapped-accessible playground on an open plot of land at the Ronald McDonald House, she got a call from Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway’s foundation.