Ronald McDonald House Charities ®

The McCartney Family Story

Megan McCartney’s son Max was born four months early and weighed only 1 pound, 7 ounces. The doctors told her that his condition was touch and go. Anything could happen, and he could die.

During this turmoil, Megan was alone.

She lived in Mayville, one and a half hours from Buffalo where her tiny baby was hospitalized. Her family couldn’t stay with her. But thanks to donors like you, the Ronald McDonald House® of Buffalo was there.

“I didn’t have to sit and eat alone,” Megan said. “I didn’t have family in the area, but I met friends at the Ronald McDonald House.”

The other families at the House understood what Megan was going through because they were going through similar problems. It helped to be able to talk to them.

“They could comfort me and I could comfort them,” Megan said. “It helps when you have a big thing like that going on in your life to have somebody to talk to who understands. It helps because you’re not going through things alone.

“They gave me a real sense of family away from home.”

When Max was just eight days old, he suffered a perforated bowel, which can be fatal. He had an operation that left him with an ostomy bag to collect body wastes.

When he was three months old, he had more surgeries to reconnect his bowel and repair two hernias. He was hospitalized for a total of four months.

All that while, the Ronald McDonald House supported Megan—and little Max.

“The House was pretty much a savior for us,” Megan said. “The people there treated me like family. They allowed me to be closer to my son—it was all amazing.”

Even if she could have made the long drive daily, the gas and tolls would have been expensive, and a hotel would have been out of the question. She couldn’t work during her pregnancy because of complications, and had to be near her critically ill baby while he was hospitalized in Buffalo.

“Without the House, I wouldn’t have been able to spend as much time with him,” she said. “I think the child needs it as much as the parents, even when they’re just little babies.”

When Megan would say good-bye to Max so that she could get some sleep at the Ronald McDonald House, his oxygen levels would drop.

“He knew I was there,” she said. “I think it was helpful to him that I was there.”

Max is now 20 months old. He still has therapy for developmental delays and comes to Buffalo to see specialists, but is otherwise healthy. At Christmastime, Megan dropped into the House to show the staff how much he’s catching up.

“He gets into everything,” Megan said. “He likes to try to crawl up the stairs and knock things off the coffee table and pull himself up on furniture. He babbles a lot, too.”

Megan wants to thank the donors who helped provide a home and family for her when her baby was so sick and her own home and family were far away.

“You have no idea what it means to people like me,” she said. “It makes everything a little bit easier.”

Notes from Sally

The Ronald McDonald House  depends 100 percent upon the support of the local community.

There are so many ways you can help. Look around our website (How You Can Help) to explore the various opportunities.

• Make a cash donation online or by using the enclosed envelope.
• Prepare a home-cooked meal for resident families through our Cooks for Kids program.
• Donate household goods from our Wish List.
• Make a lasting tribute in your name or the name of a loved one by purchasing an engraved brick paver for our garden’s Walkway of Love.
• Volunteer your time.
• Collect aluminum pull tabs.

The last option, which we call “Pulling for Ronald McDonald House Families,” is easy for all ages! Pop the pull tabs from your soda or beverage cans, soup cans, pet food cans and save them for the House.

When you pull for the Ronald McDonald House, you create awareness and community support for the House, raise funds for our families, and promote recycling. (We need only the pull tab; you can still recycle the can!)

You can save the pull tabs in any container or in one of our attractive Ronald McDonald House collection boxes, thanks to a generous donation from our partner company, Jamestown Container Companies. Drop off your pull tabs at the House and volunteers Dick Atkinson and Jim Rowe will transport them to our recycling partner, Metalico Buffalo, Inc., who matches pound for pound the tabs we recycle. The money raised from pull tabs purchases household items for families staying at the House.

For even more ideas on how you can help, check out the Housebriefs section below. Many of the groups mentioned organized their own, original ways in which they chose to contribute.

Thank you all for your loyal support!

Sally Vincent, Executive Director

Maureen Wopperer, right, of the Ronald McDonald House shows off one of the decorative boxes you can use to collect aluminum pull tabs for the House. From left are Lynn Hughes of the House, Mike Knowles of Metalico Buffalo, Inc. and Sally Vincent.	There are always rewarding volunteer opportunities for young professionals at the Ronald McDonald House. Justin Schasel of Gaines Kriner Eliot LLP, pictured center in the black shirt, attended the Buffalo Niagara Partnership 360 networking event at the Ronald McDonald House. Justin’s visit to the House inspired him to organize his associates who donated movie passes for families, donated car loads of items from our Wish List, cleaned at the House and cooked a wonderful meal for families. Special thanks to Ed Riedel and the Elma/Marilla/Wales soccer team who donated beverages and chips to the House as part of the Gaines Kriner Eliot LLP project.	Seneca One Realty, LLC, which is the owner and manager of One HSBC Center, donated $1,100 from its very successful raffle of four 200 Club Level Sabres seats and Sabres fan wear. From left are Judy K. Tallman, CPA, Controller; Sally Vincent, Executive Director of R.M.H.C. of W.N.Y., who is holding the check in one of Ronald McDonald’s shoes, and Stephen P. Fitzmaurice, Chief Operating Officer.

 

Housebriefs

There are many ways you can help the House. We invite Western New York companies, organizations and community groups to support the Ronald McDonald House through donations of cash, products or services or by organizing a fundraising event.

Perhaps you can supply items from our Wish List, which can be seen at rmhcwny.org. Volunteers are always needed for our Cooks For Kids meal preparation program.

No matter how big or small your donation, your gift makes a real difference in the lives of our families!

Celebrating the success of an annual pig roast that raises money for the Ronald McDonald House are, from left, Debbie Holliday, Dominick’s mother; Sally Vincent, Executive Director of the House; Jennifer Black, Dominick’s fiancée, and Dominick Ciliberto, owner of All Metal Works, Inc.Dominick Ciliberto and his family understand the mission of the Ronald McDonald House.When Dominick’s brother was hospitalized, his family stayed at a Ronald McDonald House. Dominick’s company, All Metal Works, Inc. in Gasport, N.Y. hosts an annual pig roast, “Domstock.” The “Domstock” event is free for All Metal Works employees, their families and friends of the Cilibertos. Event attendees are asked to make a charitable contribution for the benefit of Ronald McDonald House families. “Domstock” raised $5,000 for families!	Southwest employees who helped with the golf tournament that raised a record amount for the Ronald McDonald House include, from left, Neil O’Donnell, tournament co-chair; Kate Wesp; Ariel Swensen, Southwest Airlines station manager; Ann Sebastian, and Chad Kaczmarek, tournament co-chair. This year’s 2011 Southwest Airlines Co.® Charity Golf event raised a record amount, $11,500 for Ronald McDonald House families! Thank you, Southwest, for your year-long support of snacks for families, a Southwest-themed bedroom at the Ronald McDonald House, home-cooked meals, and standing ready to transport Ronald McDonald House patients in need of specialized treatment to other cities that Southwest serves.	Computer Task Group (CTG) placed giving trees in the cafeteria and lobby at CTG. Each tree held ornaments that contained items the Ronald McDonald House requested to make families comfortable during the holidays. Generous CTG employees donated gift cards, family entertainment, and food items, which spread holiday cheer to Ronald McDonald House resident families!Looking at some of the gifts gathered by Computer Task Group (CTG) are, from left, Sally Vincent, Executive Director of  R.M.H.C. of W.N.Y.; Elizabeth Savino, CTG Managing Director H.R. and member of the Ronald McDonald House Charities Board of Director; Gary Hartloff, maintenance supervisor, and Laura Tevens, H.R. of CTG.

Volunteer groups and Donations