The Ronald McDonald House of Galveston, 301 14th St., held its official ribbon cutting for the newly completed playground and expansion project.

Since the Ronald McDonald House first opened its doors in 1989, the board of directors has worked diligently to meet the needs of families whose seriously ill children were being treated at UTMB, Transitional Learning Center and Shriners Hospital for Children. The community of Galveston County and neighboring counties supported our efforts through fundraisers, special dinners and collecting pop tabs. We are deeply grateful to all of you who continuously support and encourage these efforts.

After the 10th anniversary of the Ronald McDonald House, an assessment study was completed by our board with the need for more play space, storage and consolidation of administrative spaces identified as major priorities.

Through a major grant from the Sealy & Smith Foundation for UTMB and with the major support of the McDonald’s Owners Operators of Houston-Galveston, property for the expansion was purchased and plans got under way to further fund these efforts.

In addition, through the generous support of our wonderful community and with the help of many local foundations and businesses, we were able to further raise the funds necessary to begin construction in 2006 of this $2.2 million addition to the existing Ronald McDonald House. As we all know too well, Hurricane Ike interrupted our lives, our construction and our progress, but we never gave up hope that someday we would succeed and complete this dream!

For that reason we celebrate the grand opening of this dream of our new addition to the Ronald McDonald House. It has been a long journey made possible by true charity, dedication and the strong perseverance of our wonderful community. Thank you one and all.

Susanne Sullivan is chairman of the Playground-Expansion Project for the Ronald McDonald House.