Since I work at McDonald’s, I find it fitting to have my
first blog post about McDonald’s and the Ronald McDonald House Charity most of
all! McDonald’s is a fast food chain, and wildly popular in Canada and the
United States. McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast food chain. Serving over
68 million people per day! McDonald’s is such a simple and easy place to have a
quick snack, lunch or a meal with the kids. McDonald’s is famous for many
different items, one of those being the Happy Meal. McDonald’s is a restaurant
that is based for children. As an employee of McDonald’s, I always try to
interact with the children as much as possible. Talking to them, showing them
the available toys, and giving them a little extra kids pack. Just to give them
some attention and show that they are one of the main focuses.
McDonald’s has many promotions and specials, daily, weekly
and monthly. As an example, Monopoly Stickers, Coupons, Free Coffee Promotions
and many many more. McDonald’s is also a very popularly promoted fast food
chain. It’s everywhere you look really. From billboards to TV commercials,
radio commercials, coupons in the mail, online coupons. Even on video games,
little children’s toys. I remember when I was a kid, I had the McDonald’s cash
register and food with it. I loved that type of stuff. McDonald’s has a target
audience to everyone, in many different ways.
One of the biggest things McDonald’s has going for them, is
the Ronald McDonald House Charity. From any happy meal, any day, any time, 10
cents gets donated to the RMHC. There are special days as well that contribute
to this charity. McHappy day which is May 6th of every year is one
of the biggest contributions to the charity. So on this day, $1 from every Big
Mac meal, Happy Meal, McCafe product including coffee and McFlurries goes
directly to the RMHC. It is such an amazing day. I don’t know how other
McDonald’s celebrates it, but at my local McDonald’s, we have volunteers come in
and help serve the customers. Police Officers, Teachers, and News Reporters all
stop by and help us out. We have events happening for the kids, cake, drinks.
Just a nice way to show our appreciation for everything everyone does to help!
At my local McDonald’s as well, we have jeans day, we pay $1 to wear a jeans
and we start our own little fund for the house! Recently in the last month, we
had a Thank You day from the Ronald McDonald House Families, which involved
them creating thank you cards and sending them to stores all over and every
person that came to McDonald’s received one. It truly was such a heart-warming
experience. Especially seeing how thankful not only the families were but the
sick children as well.
Now finally I can tell you about the Ronald McDonald House.
There is 14 of these amazing houses across Canada. The closest one to me, is in
St. Johns, Newfoundland. Sadly, there is only one in Newfoundland. The Ronald
McDonald House is a house built for families of sick children. There is usually
a RMH where there is a Children’s Hospital nearby. No matter how old someone
is, it’s always hard dealing with a sick child or even just a sick person. When
you love someone, you can feel their hurt too. So the RMH is a place that you
can stay, that allows you to be near and with your sick child in their time of
need especially when you are out of town or area. It has home cooked meals for
you and your family. Private rooms, play rooms, playgrounds, picnic tables, and
more. There’s always events and people stopping by. The first house every built
was in 1981 in Toronto. The charity has awarded over $67 million dollars in
grants to build houses and rooms and help local children’s charities. The St.
Johns RMH has 15 family suites. The average cost to operate a room is $122
dollars a night. It is an average of $10-15 dollars a night per family. But you
pay what you can pay, if you are in a tough situation and can only afford $5
dollars a day, then that’s way you pay. If you can’t afford anything, then you
don’t pay anything. It’s such a blessing to have such amazing resources like
programs and houses like the Ronald McDonald Houses.
One of my co-workers and close friends actually stayed there
for 46 nights. She had pre-eclampsia and a lot of pregnancy complications
because of that. Which involved her having a C-section that saved her life and
her baby’s life! She was forced to deliver early, or she would have died from
complications. That meant giving life to her precious little baby before she
was full term. She had to stay in hospital with her daughter for a while and
then the house after until the baby was able to go back home. Home being about
8 hours away from the house! She is so thankful to the house and charity and
she says it changed her life and it was an amazing place and experience. Her
and her family are very big in promoting and fundraising for the house. She
does many radio interviews for awareness before McHappy Day and such. She
donates herself. She always stops by when she’s in town. Even at work, she
always receives so many helping donations from customers. The Ronald McDonald
House definitely is an eye open and a life changing resource.
In closing, the Ronald
McDonald House Charity is always looking for donations and volunteers. There’s
links below with more information, contact information and ways to donate on
the sites. Remember every cent counts, and every cent goes towards families
being with their sick children in their time of need. © ©
