The House Always Wins: A Night in Vegas Slated for Sept. 19

Feature image top: Stephanie Shine, co-founder of Arkansas Talent Group in Little Rock, from left, Brent Beaulieu, chief financial officer at Baptist Health, and Janell Mason, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas & North Louisiana, are working together to organize an unforgettable evening to support a great cause. Photos by Jamie Lee.

Janell Mason has seen a little bit of everything in her role as CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas & North Louisiana. Some of it is celebratory, such as seeing the faces of a family who get to take a beloved child home from the hospital.

Some of it is somber, such as the gut punch of hearing the news a child has succumbed to his or her condition. Some of it is terrifying, nothing more so than the awful period in 2020 when she closed Ronald McDonald House briefly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, knowing helplessly that families in need would be without a critical resource.

Whatever her career brings her on any given day, especially after a decade at the helm, few things still surprise her — that is, until a recent encounter with a parent who shed new light on the critical nature of Ronald McDonald House’s work providing low- and no-cost lodging and meals to families with critically ill children.

“I’ll tell you a story: I met a family from northwest Arkansas at one of our fundraisers who’d stayed with us in the Ronald McDonald Family Room at [the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock]. They stayed with us for 159 days,” Mason said. “I told her, ‘Gosh, you know, when you were there for that long, I’m surprised you didn’t want to move to the [Ronald McDonald] house, which is five minutes away.’

“What she told me was how important it was to be steps away from their child. She told me about being there when the medical teams are knocking on your door saying, ‘Be here now. We need you.’ She told me about making medical decisions in your pajamas.”

Mason, who feels a protective kinship with every family that passes through Ronald McDonald House’s doors, fell silent for a moment.

Janell Mason

“This mom gave me a whole new perspective,” she said at last. “I just got chills.”

Many people can be forgiven for seeing the steadfast mission of the 44-year-old Arkansas nonprofit from a different perspective these days, for it has been a recent period of great change. Since 2020, the organization has dived into expanding its reach to serve more people while continuing to provide its services for a freewill pittance or free to families.

The result of that focus has been more facilities opening locally and new territories in north Louisiana and most of the rest of Arkansas brought under the leadership of the central Arkansas team.

Now, with nine facilities either operating or soon to open within its sprawling footprint, the organization is looking to make an even bigger dent in the number of families seeking its services. In the process, the nonprofit will easily obliterate the already-considerable impact it has had annually — last year, the organization saved 2,200 families in excess of $3.4 million dollars in lodging and food expenses — even though, as Mason said, Ronald McDonald House still will not be enough to serve all.

“We have a waiting list at the house of at least 20 people every night,” she said. “Our social work teams refer families to us, assessing the families that need us the most, so we know there are even more families that aren’t on the waiting list. Like I often tell people, if you go to a restaurant, and they say it’s going to be an hour, you may not even put your name on the list, so we know the need is great.”

That scope of need is the one thing, the most important thing, that the central Arkansas hub shares in common with its new territories. Stretching from northwest Arkansas to Fort Smith to Shreveport and Monroe in Louisiana, all of the areas seek to improve capacity and find ways to pay for it.

During its history in Little Rock, which goes back to 1981, Ronald McDonald House has steadily expanded its beds to serve as many families as possible. After years in makeshift quarters, the showpiece Little Rock house opened across the street from Arkansas Children’s, offering 32 private guest suites and a dining room for 80 served by two large commercial kitchens.

In 2020, the group opened the Ronald McDonald Family Room in UAMS, located on the same floor as the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. That facility offers four overnight guest suites and hosts many more drop-in guests seeking a quiet place to sit, laundry facilities or a hot shower.

In Louisiana, Shreveport and Monroe seek to open a Ronald McDonald House and Ronald McDonald Family Room, respectively, in the near future, while northwest Arkansas and the River Valley operate Ronald McDonald Houses in Fort Smith and Fayetteville and a family room in Rogers.

Still, the line outside the door grows, which is driving the organization to expand once again right back in Little Rock, where another Ronald McDonald House is going to be built inside Baptist Health Medical Center, offering six private rooms and various amenities to families.

Brent Beaulieu, chief financial officer at Baptist Health, sits on the Ronald McDonald House board. He helped broker conversations between the two organizations to bring the $3.5 million project to fruition. Talking about the forthcoming house, which will occupy 6,000 square feet inside the hospital itself, Beaulieu’s emotions punch him in the throat, breaking his accountant-like calm.

Brent Beaulieu

“My personal path is I’ve been involved with Ronald McDonald House, going to some of the events, for multiple years,” he said. “My wife and her family actually used Ronald McDonald House back in the day when she was younger. When she was a teenager, one of her siblings had a serious illness and spent time at Children’s. Knowing of that impact, you know, I wanted to get involved.

“They had done the family room at UAMS, and I believe Janell had this thought that there was a need over here at Baptist, as well. As great as [Ronald McDonald House] is, there’s still some impact to families that is not ideal. You still have a mother who has a child here who’s in the NICU, and their place to stay is somewhere off campus. A lot of times, that may work, but for a new parent, that is obviously a very difficult situation, having to leave their child.”

The immediate need for funding the facility’s construction and operating costs — there is about $1 million left to raise, Mason said — has lent extra significance to fundraising, including the forthcoming A Night in Vegas, a casino event slated for Sept. 19 at The Hall in Little Rock, emceed by AY Media Group President and Publisher Heather Baker. One of the newer fundraisers on the organization’s calendar, A Night in Vegas, for which AY Media Group is a sponsor, offers a different vibe than the group’s Chocolate Fantasy Ball formal gala or even the annual golf tournament.

“I think what’s different about A Night in Vegas is it’s more about the glitz and the glam and having fun with your friends,” said Stephanie Shine, co-founder of Arkansas Talent Group and chairperson for the upcoming fundraiser. “This is truly about networking, having fun, having a night out and really just enjoying yourself for a great cause.

Stephanie Shine

Shine said while the event might not have the name recognition as the organization’s other events, being newer, those who attend are in for a fantastic evening that does not require black-tie garb or the ability to hit a 5-iron.

“You can play casino games, and if you don’t want to do that, you can go up into the VIP lounge and just watch the band, which everybody loved last year,” she said. “Enjoy the food. Enjoy the drinks. Enjoy your friends. There will be prizes and a silent auction. It really is so much fun, while you’re still making a huge difference for the organization.”

Under the best of circumstances, having a baby in the United States is a more expensive proposition than in any other country in the world. According to statistics published by Investopedia earlier this year, the average cost to give birth in the U.S. is nearly $19,000, accounting for the costs of pregnancy, birth and postpartum services.

In 1 out of every 10 cases, a baby arrives under less than the best of circumstances. Worldmetrics.org reported in May that about 10 percent of all births require some form of NICU care, and for those infants that are born preterm, the average length of stay is roughly 25 days.

AS magazine reported Americans spend about $21 per person a day on food, and the average cost of a hotel room in America clocks in at $171 per night, without allowing for seasonality, as reported by Budget Your Trip. Going strictly on those averages, one adult would spend nearly $5,000 in lodging and food expenses before the infant was released to go home.

Shine said numbers like that make Ronald McDonald House services all the more critical and added many, if not most, of the people who volunteer or donate, including those who attend and sponsor events, do so having had a child in the hospital or knowing someone who has. Shine herself is no exception.

“I have a friend who had a baby, and they stayed at the Ronald McDonald House. It was one of the most difficult times of their lives, and [the house] just made it more comfortable and less stressful,” she said. “A lot of us who are parents, are like, ‘I couldn’t imagine if I had to go through this. I would want somebody there to help me through the situation.’

“I think if you ask anybody why they are involved or why they support Ronald McDonald House, I guarantee you they will say they either know somebody who was directly helped or because they would want something like this available if they had to go through a situation like these families have. That’s what really resonates with people.”

For Mason, just the thought of the steady stream of people living a family’s worst nightmare still gets her out of bed in the morning, ready to come to work and help. She hopes it motivates throngs of people to attend A Night in Vegas for the same reason.

“This event, for me, is a fun evening where just buying a ticket is enough to sponsor a family,” she said. “I want people to know that yes, it is a good time, but more importantly than that, they are helping Arkansas families.”

For tickets or sponsor information, visit rmhcarkansas.org/events.

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Mac, a goldendoodle, is the house dog at Little Rock’s Ronald McDonald House. He is almost 11 years old and has become a staple for visitors and guests. His official title is director of smiles, and though he is not an official therapy dog, he may as well be.

Mac had to meet two requirements to become the director of smiles at the Ronald McDonald House. He had to be hypoallergenic to account for the many children with compromised immune systems that come through the house. As a non-shedding goldendoodle, the first box was checked.

However, he also had to have a good, gentle temperament and be able to handle a large number of people coming in and out, as well as interacting with sick and weak children. Box 2, checked.