Ronald McDonald House fundraiser

By Brooke Powell
Edited by Madison Berg

      Hello, my name is Brooke Powell. Just recently I came up with a project to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. A few students also joined into my project, their names are Madison, Michaela, Taylor and Jani Rae. Our fundraising activities were the “10 days of giving for RMH,” a book and bear drive, a pop tab collection and a bake sale. We did this project because we know that the Ronald McDonald House is a great place and they could definitely use the help. 

    Some of you are probably wondering what the Ronald McDonald House is…Well it’s basically a “home away from home” for both children and their families. But this isn’t just a home for anyone it’s for the families with children that have ongoing medical treatment at Mayo Clinic. There are children who have doctor’s appointments 2-3 times a week, if not more. If their parents are driving over an hour to Rochester every other day, the money they would be spending on gas would be ridiculous, right? Well, that’s were the Ronald McDonald House comes in handy.

            The Ronald McDonald House provides much more than a home for families. They also provide games, toys, movies nights, crafts, activities, and much more. Sounds like a fun place, right?

            There are 42 guest bedrooms in the Ronald McDonald House. There isn’t really a cost to stay there. Although, they do ask for a 10 dollar night donation per family, if possible, but it's not required.

            Most of the staff at the Ronald McDonald House are volunteers. They help with cleaning, greeting guests, answering phone calls and much more. They also provide a shoulder to cry on after a hard day at the hospital.

            Since you’ve learned about the Ronald McDonald House, you probably want to know more about our fundraiser. We did many different things to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Recently we just had a bake sale at Wal-Mart. We sold baked goods and homemade crafts. Our bake sale was a great success, we made 235 dollars for the RMH. We also were able to collect roughly 50 pounds of pop tabs, 70 pounds of food, 35 pounds of cleaning supplies and household items, and some toys, movies, and art supplies for the Ronald McDonald House!

           On Tuesday October 19^th we traveled to the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester Minnesota to deliver the donations. The staff at the Ronald McDonald were extremely grateful for what we donated and surprised by how much we had accomplished. We also got a tour of the first floor and learned lots about the Ronald McDonald House. Overall this was a great project and for a great cause. We are happy we were able to help!

                                Here are some pictures of our trip to the Ronald McDonald House!

                                                                 Packing up the food

                                                           Signing the donation forms

                                                         On the tour: The game room

                                                   On the tour: The art room

                                                The giant map. People who stay in the RMH put
                                          a pin in to show where they are from. People have come
                                          from all over the world to stay there.          

                                                 We got our picture with Ronald McDonald!