Nine years and $9 million dollars.

That's what it took for Charlotte to get a Ronald McDonald House for families who've brought children long distances to the Levine and Hemby hospitals.

The ribbon cutting is Friday, and the first eight families move in May 9. It will be up to 18 families the following week, and 28 the next week.

Charlotte has over 300 pediatric beds that typically draw patients from across the Southeast. That's 300 families who likely need a place to shower, nap and eat a decent meal between hospital visits.

The Ronald McDonald House - made possible by donations and volunteers - offers that, along with countless other seemingly minor details that allow parents to focus their attention on a sick child.

A small contribution of $15 per day is asked, but those who can't pay are just as welcome.

Tate Ogburn of Charlotte is a veteran user of a Ronald McDonald House in Ohio, where he took his daughter for multiple surgeries after she was born without a left hand. He said the benefits include intangibles such as emotional support.

"You've got people there in the house that were yanked out of their homes for an emergency, and they don't know when they'll go back," Ogburn said.

"A Ronald McDonald house surrounds them with people who are going through the same thing, and they all understand. It can be very moving."

Calls from families wanting to stay at the house have been coming in for over a year, organizers said.

Hotel rooms aren't a viable option for many, who don't know whether their child will be hospitalized for weeks or months, experts said.

"I took a call from a mom from Indiana whose son was being transferred from another hospital in the state to the Levine, and she had been sleeping in her car," said Vicky Seksinsky, a volunteer at the house.

"I hated to tell her we weren't open yet. Her son had four brain tumors. It broke my heart."

In the past, the only alternative in Charlotte has been the 22-bedroom Hospitality House, about a half mile from the Ronald McDonald House.

It accepts any family with a relative in the hospital - not just those with a sick child - but there's a waiting list.

"After 26 years of doing it alone," said Kimberly Melton of the Hospitality House, "we finally have some help. This is one of those problems most in the Charlotte community simply aren't aware of."

Donors make it happen

The Ronald McDonald House is helping change that.

Since the fundraising campaign went public in 2006 at a Carolina Panthers game, 3,000 people have offered to serve as volunteers, including entire families.

Donors have also come forward with all manner of gifts, including companies such as ACN - which is not only hosting a $2 million corporate campaign but is supplying the house with 10 years' free phone service.

When that first family moves in on May 9, they'll walk into a fully stocked, fully staffed 28-bedroom home, with four stoves, four refrigerators, four microwaves, seven washers and seven dryers.

All donated, says Mona Johnson-Gibson, executive director of the house.

"Just Friday, a gentleman and his wife showed up with a dollhouse he made, and it's as big as a 4-year-old," she said, noting it has a fireplace and staircase. "It's astounding to me that people are coming from everywhere and giving. Some have had children who were ill in the past, and others are just grateful that they haven't."

More than 300 volunteers have been trained and will work in crews from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., doing everything from checking in new families to cleaning out refrigerators.

There are even cookie crews for baking cookies from 1 to 4 p.m. daily, thanks to a cookie dough campaign sponsored by the nonprofit Cookies for a Cause.

Ellen Early is a field relations manager with Ronald McDonald Charities Global, and even she is surprised by the outpouring of support in Charlotte.

In the past nine years, Early said she has gotten more calls from people wanting a house built in Charlotte than from any other community.

"I've never heard these kinds of numbers of volunteers before," Early said. "It's amazing."

This makes the world's 305th Ronald McDonald House, all of which are funded in part by McDonald's restaurants.

Baums began Charlotte push

The first Ronald McDonald House opened in 1974 in Philadelphia, thanks to an unusual partnership between a doctor, McDonald's restaurants and a player for the Philadelphia Eagles whose child had leukemia.

By most accounts, the idea of opening one in Charlotte dates to 2002.

Retired pediatric oncologist Dr. Ed Baum and his wife, Ann, tend to be where the story starts.

He helped launch the nation's second Ronald McDonald House in Chicago in 1977 and from there was called on frequently to help other cities establish a house.

The couple moved to Charlotte in 1993 and noticed there was no Ronald McDonald House. At the time, Charlotte wasn't considered a hub for pediatric care, Ann Baum said.

"Difficult childhood cases went to Wake Forest, Duke and Chapel Hill," she said. "But then Charlotte caught up."

Presbyterian Hospital, which operates Hemby Children's Hospital, expanded in 2003 and 2006. And in 2007, the 234-bed Levine Children's Hospital opened as the largest children's hospital between Atlanta and Washington.

"Suddenly, people were being referred from smaller towns to Charlotte and we needed a house," Ann Baum said.

Ed Baum began calling other pediatric oncologists in Charlotte and suggested they use their patient contacts to find business people willing to take on the cause.

Among those contacted was then-Wachovia managing director Steve Lewis, a father of six including twins and triplets. His eldest son had been treated successfully for leukemia.

"The oncologist said: 'This is something we need to be part of the community, and we need people like you involved,'" recalled Lewis.

"It's was pretty hard to say 'No' to the guy who saved your son's life."

Lewis became a member of the project's steering committee in 2002, and later was the first board chair when it was formed in 2006.

"The hard part was trying to raise funding in one of the most difficult financial times the community has faced in decades," Lewis said.

"It's a point of civic pride for all of us that this was accomplished during that difficult time."