The Ronald McDonald House

The Ronald McDonald House is a 'home-away-from-home' for families, which enables them to be close by their hospitalized child at little or no cost.  The first House opened in Philadelphia in 1974.  Today, there are 309 Houses throughout the world.  They revolve around the philosophy that a family should focus on healing their child and nothing else should matter. 

RMAC* visited the House in Manhattan today to entertain the sick children and their families.  It was the 3rd visit for RMAC to this location.  RMAC provided 20 pizzas for the families there to start the afternoon.  Twenty was the number the program manager suggested and although we thought it sounded like a lot, but by the time we left there were only about 5 or 6 left.  After pizza, some kids started heading over to the art tables where we had set up small canvasses and paint.  The kids got into their own creations and were happy to be able to keep them.

Next, music filled the room with three students from Berklee College of Music, who are also involved with RMAC.  They played guitar, harmonica, sang, beat-boxed, and ran a drum circle. The drum circle was interactive, with kids selecting various hand-held percussion instruments to bang around and have fun with.

Tap dancing rounded out the show with a demonstration of various steps, followed by a short tap dance by one of the RMAC high school seniors.  The afternoon ended with a game of Freeze Dance, which even got some of the parents up and dancing.

Each year there are different kids and families at The House from near and far.  Today I spoke to children who live in both  Sweden and Greece, while last year I remember speaking Italian to a young girl from Italy. I also remember how strangely she looked at me, an adult, when I could not speak her language very well!

I drove the high school girls down today and listened to them speak about having to finish college essays and rehearse lines for the upcoming play.  In the other car, Ridgefield’s First Selectman Rudy Marconi drove the college students.  Their conversation revolved around getting jobs while one tried to read a book in the back seat.  It was wonderful to see that even though the students have so much to do, they look forward to this event even if it means giving up the better part of a Saturday.

Rudy is one of our organization’s biggest supporters.  He was interested in attending with us this year to learn more about the Ronald McDonald House and was quite impressed both with The House and our group.  Last year Connecticut’s State Representative John Frey came with us and was equally impressed.  The House looks forward to our annual visits and we are honored to be one of the organizations that they have approved to be affiliated with.

As I photographed the afternoon, it was difficult to tell who was having more fun:  the big kids or the little ones.  As we were packing up to leave, one of the little girls who is about 5 years old, announced to us, "I just want to tell you that you made my Saturday special."  We all melted.  I am so proud of the RMAC kids! 

 

Click here for more photos from today. 

*RMAC – Ridgefield Music and Arts Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing performance and exhibition opportunities for students in grades 6 and above.  I am the founder and president of RMAC, which is in its fifth year.  For more information, please visit our website at www.rmacct.org.