Volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House

[TeenHelp]

Volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House
By Emma (Golfing girl)

The Ronald McDonald House is a place where families can stay when a baby, child or teenager is very sick and needs a lot of treatment to help save them. This house is next to the hospital so everyone can be close to the family member who is hospitalized. This is a place you can call home because you need a place to stay for a while. It is a huge house with a lot of rooms to stay in, laundry rooms, and a dining room for everyone to eat in. There is also a kitchen that all of the food is donated to have. There is a game room for the kids, TV, movies and for Christmas a 20 foot tree with amazing Christmas ornaments on it to make you feel like you are home and not alone. This house makes you feel like you are home, not in a hospital or hotel room.

There are a number of Ronald McDonald Houses around the world. To stay at a house in the USA, it can cost fifty to one hundred dollars. If you are not able to pay this they will see if you can pay up to twenty five dollars and if you are still unable to pay that or anything at all, they will still let you and your whole family stay for free. They are never going to turn you away if you cannot pay to stay. Everyone wants your family member to get better. Some families will stay longer than others, it all depends on the hospitalized person and what they need to help them.

When you call or visit the Ronald McDonald House, day or night, to set up a time to come and stay or you just have one question or many to ask, they are always kind to talk to. I know this because my parents, sisters and I have been volunteering for eight years. We started with the pop or soda tabs. The pop tabs have to be one hundred percent aluminum and you can take them off all cans of pop or soup. When you have a bucket filled take them to the Ronald McDonald House and they take all of them to a recycling company and use the money for families who can't pay to stay in the house, along with food and other supplies a family member may need. You can also help by dropping off food, or toys when it is Christmas so that everyone can have something and not get left out. Also you can be a shuttle driver and drive families to get groceries, or you can help clean the room and make meals for the families. I love doing the pop tabs and we pick out Christmas gifts and give them food so that the families have something.

If you ever want to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, you can start with the pop tabs. When you are done drinking your pop or eating your cup of soup, just take off the tabs and put them in a bucket or bag and when you have so many you can take it to them or you can even mail them if you didn't want to drive. Volunteering is one of the best things that you can do, you can even meet some of the families and you will never forget the looks that they give you when you bring in all of the buckets of pop tabs, food and gifts and then they hug you. It's something that you will never forget and I'm so lucky that my parents, sisters and I have been volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House. If you are ready to start your own volunteering then go ahead and do this or something else that you enjoy - you are going to love it!