A pair of philanthropists from northern Ohio had never been to Shriners Children’s Ohio in Dayton before leaving their estate to the pediatric burn and specialty care hospital, giving it $11.5 million.
“Dad and mom wanted to take care of kids,” said Jursich Jr., of Akron, during a recent visit to Shriners Children’s Ohio. “That was a big thing in his heart.”
Jursich’s father helped expand McDonald’s in the Cleveland area, opening his first unit, the 366th in the country, in Cleveland in March 1962 after graduating at the top of the class from one of the first Hamburger University classes, according to this obituary.
He went on to open a total of six McDonald’s locations.
The donation to Shriners Children’s Ohio came about after the Jursich family was searching for organizations helping children. Jursich’s father also donated $15 million to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital to establish the Robert and Marthe Jursich Care for Children Fund.
“This is God’s working happening,” Jursich Jr. said.
The $11.5 million donation is going directly to patient care, said Bethany Deines, senior director of philanthropy for Shriners Children’s Ohio.
“Because of their support, the Jursich Care Center is a place where life-changing medical care is provided every day,” Deines said.
This is largest donation in Shriners Children’s Ohio’s nearly 60-year history. This gift is also among the largest ever received by the entire Shriners Children’s organization, a 102-year-old health care system that has treated nearly 1.6 million children across the world.
“Those calls don’t happen very often,” Deines said about finding out the family wanted to make this large of a donation.
It was fitting for the Jursich family to focus so much support on children given that the fast food chain they had helped grow is a favorite among children.
“It was interesting ― Mr. Jursich had owned a chain of McDonald’s restaurants,” Deines said. “Every kid loves McDonald’s, right? And he really made the decision, at the end of his lifetime, that he wanted to do something that benefited kids.”
The Jursich family also wanted to keep their donations in Ohio, so when the family found out there was a Shriners location in Ohio, they felt it was the right connection, Deines said.
She said the $11.5 million donation to Shriners Children’s Ohio is transformational. Shriners offers help to children no matter the family’s ability to pay, so Jursich’s gift is going toward that patient care.
“Any time you can honor a family for extraordinary philanthropy is a good day,” Deines said.
Shriners Children’s Ohio is one of the four Shriners hospitals dedicated to the treatment of pediatric burns and specializing in plastic and reconstructive surgery.