My first Day

My first day volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House was very uneventful. When I got there, I was paired up with a more experienced volunteer, and we went to work. There is a list of chores that each shift of volunteers has to complete during their time there. All of the chores were some type of cleaning activity, but they didn't take much time to complete. I did the usual sweeping and mopping, but then I also had to do random tasks such as wiping down every single door with a clorox wipe. I know the house has to be extra clean for the families and children staying there, but I think it would be much more efficient if each family wiped down their own door.

After we ran out of cleaning tasks, the other volunteer and I decided to put together some welcome bags. It is amazing the amount of donations the house receives! Each bag had 1 donated blanket, 1 donated stuffed bear(which included a $25 gift card to Wildcat Warehouse), 2 donated children’s books, 1 donated magazine, donated lotion and hand sanitizer, and several other donated items, all in a specially made and donated Thirty-one brand bag. The organization is efficient because it receives so many donations.

At the end of the day, I was sad. I thought I was going to get to work with the families and spend time getting to know the. Man, was I wrong. I never even laid eyes on the first guest. I hope in my next experiences volunteering I will get to see more of the families.

Ronald McDonald House Charities: An Overview

The Ronald McDonald House was founded in Philadelphia in 1973 by Fred Hill. Since its start, the organization has grown to have 125 local chapters in 57 countries that have a total of 322 houses, 177 family rooms, and 48 care mobiles. Families with children that require extended hospital stays can stay at a Ronald McDonald house and be provided with meals, laundry facilities, playrooms for the children, recreational activities, transportation to and from the hospital, and, most importantly, a support system of other families. Families are not expected to pay for their stay, which is why donations are such an important part of the organization’s stability.

The Lexington area Ronald McDonald House was started in 1984 by a group of volunteers. Since its opening, it has served families from every county in Kentucky, 38 states, and 10 foreign countries. In 1997, the house was expanded to 20 rooms, and the organization was expanded through the creation of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Bluegrass. A care mobile was funded for eastern Kentucky in 2005, and a family room was established in the Kentucky Children’s Hospital in 2009.

Overall, I think that the Ronald McDonald House charities are a wonderful organization that has helped millions of families since its start. I am excited to start volunteering with them, and I can’t wait to meet all of the wonderful families staying at the Ronald McDonald House here in Lexington.

TED Talk Reflection: What if our healthcare system kept us healthy?

TED Talk

For this reflection, I watched a TED Talk called “What if our healthcare system kept us healthy?” by Rebecca Onie (link is above). At first glance, I can admit that this TED Talk does not seem to be related to my charity, the Ronald McDonald House, at all. However, upon further inspection it became clear to me that the issues Rebecca Onie discusses are not only relevant to the guests of the Ronald McDonald House, but to society as a whole. Rebecca Onie points out the difference between the current medical system of “sick care,” where we go to doctors when we’re unhealthy expecting medications and a magical cure all for our diseases, and the ideal system of “healthcare,” where doctors are capable of prescribing solutions to the issues that get us sick in the first place. The absence of disease isn’t the only qualifier in describing a person as healthy, so healthcare should go beyond medications and treatments to encompass the holistic view of a person’s health. Lifestyle choices have been shown to be the largest indicator in the health of a person, so doctors should be targeting the lifestyles of their patients to see the best improvement.

For impoverished patients, like those that the Ronald McDonald House serves, many lifestyle choices aren’t really choices. Impoverished Americans may not be able to afford good housing and healthy food options for themselves and their children, negatively impacting health and causing the need for the Ronald McDonald House. Improving the health of America begins by improving the conditions of poor citizens, the way doctors look at treating their patients, and the accessibility of medical care. If America decides to choose the real path of health care as opposed to "sick care," the Ronald McDonald House may receive fewer families with children in the NICU or undergoing drastic treatments.

Rebecca Onie’s TED talk also focuses on a topic very near to the goal of the service learning project of CIS. Onie’s idea of healthcare is being practiced in at risk cities across the country with one main resource in common—college students. If a college can empower its students to take action against the social issues found in a community, a lot of improvement can be made. Similarly, the CIS course pushed students to make a difference in the community they surround themselves with, by assigning us organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, the Academy, and the Lexington Public Library.

Who does the Ronald McDonald House help?

One of the primary issues I discovered while volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House would be the disparity between rural and urban healthcare, which I then researched further as part of my argument essay.

The majority of the people that the Ronald McDonald House serves come from rural Eastern Kentucky, where accessibility and quality of healthcare does not often compare with the care found in urban areas, like Lexington. Many families travel from Eastern Kentucky to the hospitals in Lexington because the hospitals here have better equipment, better trained staff, and better quality of care. However, that puts families in a difficult situation. They have now left their jobs, their families, and their homes while their children undergo medical treatment in a strange new city. This causes stress on families and the children themselves. Parents lose money because they can’t work and also struggle to find a place to stay while their children are in the PICU or NICU. This is where the Ronald McDonald House comes in- they provide these families food and a place to stay while their children stay in the NICU or PICU at any of Lexington’s main hospitals, decreasing the amount of stress on families by at least a little bit. The Ronald McDonald House is absolutely necessary in this situation. However, the health care system as a whole needs to be improved to provide incentives to doctors practicing in rural areas as well as incentives for hospitals that serve rural populations. An increase in rural accessibility and rural health quality is absolutely necessary.

During my last experience volunteering with the Ronald McDonald House, I met a guest who had his first child at the age of 19. He’s now in his thirties, staying at the Ronald McDonald House because his most recent son is staying in the NICU. All four of his children have had to spend time in the NICU at the University of Kentucky. He was the first and only guest I spoke to at the Ronald McDonald House. He’s the face I will forever think of when I think about the work the Ronald McDonald House does. He gives a face to the organization.

Reflecting on my time at RMDH....

Below is a link to my final reflection!! I really enjoyed my time at RMDH Lexington


Click to watch!!

Second Experience with Ronald McDonald House

9-26-15

First Time Volunteering

After my first experience volunteering with the Ronald McDonald House, I was overwhelmed with the effort that the staff, volunteers, and guests put into making everyone feel welcome. I spent most of my volunteer time doing basic household cleaning (washing windows, vacuuming carpets, cleaning countertops, taking out the trash), which improved my cleaning skills but didn’t exactly teach me much. However, I also received the opportunity to sit down and eat breakfast with the other volunteers at the house (and whichever family members left their room, although the house is very quiet on weekend mornings). I was delighted to witness this idea of “family” in the house while I was there. The volunteers were treated like members of the Ronald McDonald team, eating alongside guests and desk workers. In addition, the desk worker that day always encouraged volunteers to take breaks if they were tired and to check the pantry for soda if they needed a drink. As volunteers, our main idea is that we are there to help and take care of other people, but often times the other people have the same ideas about us.

I also cleaned a guest room after a family checked out. Cleaning rooms isn’t exactly all that interesting, as it’s a repetition of many of the same tasks we do outside of the private rooms. I was mostly impressed with the fact that the rooms were already so clean to begin with. Families staying in the house obviously respect the help they are receiving and the time that the volunteers are providing. They make sure to take care of the environment they’re provided and are always very polite with us working in the house. The Ronald McDonald House succeeds in its goal of making a positive environment for volunteers and families undergoing lots of stress.

As I close this blog post, I end with a photograph of a chalkboard that hangs in the volunteer room in the Ronald McDonald House. I think the staff and the guests there really understand the true meaning behind this quote.

First Experience with the Ronald McDonald House

9-16-15

Volunteer Orientation and Introduction to the House

When you look at the Ronald McDonald House from the outside, it doesn’t exactly look like much. There’s a small glass door in the front next to the statue of Ronald McDonald, but the place doesn’t look like it can hold many people. However, when you walk inside, the building is huge. To your left is a family room with couches and televisions right next to a media room stocked with movies and a few computers. To the right is the volunteer “headquarters,” including offices for the workers that service the house, a main desk where guests can go for help, and an area for volunteers to sign in/sign out. As you move throughout the house, you’ll discover the dining room, a playroom, a community room used for large meetings, and the kitchen, which is kept stocked with food and drinks for the guests. There are numerous storage closets and laundry rooms on both floors, along with at least twenty guest rooms. The place is huge, well-furnished, and well-organized. I was impressed with the way everything operated and couldn’t wait to begin my volunteer experience with the organization, even though I knew I would spend most of my time assisting the house workers in cleaning the house and ensuring proper operation.

It was made clear to me while conversing with the volunteer director that the most important part about the Ronald McDonald House is the family atmosphere. The guests get to know the director of the house, the desk workers, and each other in order to get through one of the most stressful experiences of their lives. As volunteers, our purpose has been made clear. Our main job is to make sure the house runs smoothly so that all the guests may focus on the more important things in their lives: their health and the health of their children. As an organization, the Ronald McDonald House strives to make life a little easier for the parents of children experiencing health complications. The Ronald McDonald House that services the UK Hospital is no different, attempting to make the lives of parents with children in the NICU and PICU a little bit easier.