Ronald McDonald House Charities

At work we have a Social Responsibility Team and each year, one of their initiatives is a "Week of Giving," where essentially, it is one designated week with over 20 volunteer opportunities lined up, where all employees are encouraged to take time and volunteer. For the past few years, I've always done "Feed my Starving Children" in Aurora (which is a great organization). This year, I decided to sign up for RMHC preparing and serving lunch at their Comer Children's Hospital Location in the city.

This past Tuesday, me and about 10 of my co-workers all went to the house. I've never been to any of the Ronald McDonald Houses before and it was pretty amazing! Everything RMHC does is fantastic. We were able to get a tour of the house too. They had this huge, wonderful kitchen with 4 ovens, 2 large industrial size refrigerators and large granite working spaces. For our menu, we decided to make homemade pizzas, salad and fruit salad. It really was a lot of fun and everyone that was there was so nice and appreciative. We didn't have that many families come through for lunch. The house isn't super close to the hospital and they mentioned it is about a 30 minute shuttle to get there. Most of the families stay at the hospital all day and then will come back late for dinner and call it a night. We did meet a sweet little girl and her mom and they were so sweet. The mom said they've been there over 3 weeks and are just so appreciative of everything RMHC offers. I'll definitely be volunteering there again!