March 23--The chief executive of Kansas City's Ronald McDonald House Charities has been named to the top post in Chicago, succeeding 16-year veteran Doug Porter, who is retiring.
Holly Buckendahl's appointment takes effect July 6. Buckendahl, 44, will move to Chicago from Kansas City with her husband and two children.
Porter, 58, oversaw the fundraising for and construction of the $39 million, 15-story Ronald McDonald House in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood, which was the world's largest until a few months ago.
The charity offers free, convenient housing to families of children in the hospital. There are five Chicago-area Ronald McDonald Houses and three Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, which are inside hospitals. Four of the five houses were built in the past six years.
The tower on East Grand Avenue has 95 rooms and serves the Lurie Children's Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. In all, the charity offers 153 bedrooms in the region. It still turns away families during peak summer months.
"That's simply because anything elective, parents would like to do during the summer to minimize disruption to school schedules and other kids," Porter said. "We're turning away maybe 150 to 200 family requests a year."
Porter said that figure represented 0.5 percent of its capacity of about 43,000 nights per year. The organization has about a $7.5 million annual operating budget, excluding construction-related expenses.
The Streeterville building, which opened in 2012, has about $2.5 million left on its mortgage, Porter said. McDonald's franchisees in the Chicago area and Lurie were major contributors as the housing organization made the move from Lincoln Park to coincide with Lurie's relocation to Streeterville.
mmharris@tribpub.com
