More than $450K raised for the Ronald McDonald House Tampa Bay

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay rang in the end of the year with one of its final fundraisers.

The backstory:

The 'Round Up' and '$1, $3, $5' donation platform raised more than $450,000. The money will go to the Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida.

The organization held a check presentation at its East House in St. Petersburg on Thursday afternoon.

The fundraiser ran from September through October at 406 McDonald's locations.

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What they're saying:

"No one wants to find out that their child has some sort of illness or some sort of reason to be hospitalized," Lisa Suprenand, the CEO of the Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay, said.

The money will help fund daily functions of the Ronald McDonald Houses around Tampa Bay, like housing, meals, education support and counseling for families who have a sick child in the hospital.

"Especially during the holidays when these families are going through probably the hardest time of their life, it is really heartwarming to be part of that," Amy Rodriguez, a McDonald's franchisee owner, said.

There are five houses across Tampa Bay. The organization opened its fifth house earlier this year at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

"If your child's in the hospital, you want your entire focus to be there caring for your child," Suprenand said. "And so the parents go to the hospital, they are focused on their child's health care. When they come back here, they get to take a breath."

The organization says it helps hundreds of families throughout Tampa Bay with overnight stays and thousands of families with daytime services.

What you can do:

The organization says 30% of its operating budget comes from donations from McDonald's customers.

Suprenand says they continue to see more families traveling to Tampa Bay for specialty care for their children.

The CEO says the Ronald McDonald House at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital has already been busy in its first year open.

"We're already over 99% full occupancy and really even need more rooms in that space," Suprenand said.

As the population continues to grow and more families need support, the organization says these types of fundraisers are even more important to the daily function of these houses.

"Our families used to stay maybe an average of five to seven nights," Suprenand said. "Now, they're staying almost a month."