The first Ronald McDonald House in Suffolk County is taking shape on the Stony Brook Medicine campus. Construction began this past August on the $34 million house beside Stony Brook Children's Hospital, a three-story, 60,000-square-foot building that will give families of seriously ill children a place to stay steps from their child's bed, at no cost to them.

What is being built

The house is designed with 30 private bedroom suites, each with its own bathroom, and the shared spaces that make long hospital stretches survivable: a community kitchen where volunteers cook free meals, stocked pantries, laundry, a fitness center, a meditation room, a media center, interactive playrooms and an outdoor playground. Ronkonkoma-based Aurora Contractors was awarded the construction contract in April, and Ronald McDonald House Long Island's campaign goal is to welcome its first thousand families at a grand opening once the building and its fundraising are complete.

Why Suffolk families have been waiting for it

Long Island currently has one Ronald McDonald House, in New Hyde Park next to Cohen Children's Medical Center, which means a Suffolk family whose child is hospitalized at Stony Brook has had no equivalent close by. Stony Brook Children's is Suffolk County's only children's hospital, and for families coming from the East End the drive to the hospital alone can be an hour or more. A hospital stay that stretches into weeks turns that distance into an impossible arithmetic of gas, parking, hotel nights and time away from the bedside.

A Ronald McDonald House collapses that distance to a walk. Families stay in a private suite, eat from a kitchen kept full by volunteers, do laundry, sleep, and get back to their child in minutes. The Stony Brook project was announced with a ceremonial groundbreaking in April 2024 after roughly a decade of planning between Ronald McDonald House Charities and Stony Brook Medicine.

A community-funded building

The campaign behind the house has been a running collection of Long Island gestures large and small. This year alone, the organization's campaign page has logged a $14,000 donation from the creator of a book series, a Ward Melville High School softball fundraiser game, and a Bat Mitzvah project that arrived with donations. The organization also continues to run its existing programs at hospitals across the region, including family rooms and hospitality carts that serve families during shorter stays.

Ronald McDonald House Long Island lists naming opportunities, a project wish list and donation options for the Stony Brook house on its campaign page. For Suffolk families who have made the Nassau drive or paid for the hotel nights, the steel going up on the Stony Brook campus is the start of a different answer: when it opens, the house will be the county's first, and the second on Long Island.

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