Week 4!
I can’t believe we’re already four weeks into my summer internship! I started to delve a little bit into the history of Ronald McDonald House as a national charity in my post last week, so for this week, I’ll give a little background on our chapter. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwestern Indiana began back in 1977 with just one house. Fast forward to 2018, and we’re one of the biggest chapters of the charity nation-wide, with 5 houses under our belt. Each singular house is self-sufficient, but the purpose of consolidating these houses under one chapter is to be able to share fundraising, development, and other techniques chapter-wide to improve efficacy. In addition to the five houses we have to help house sick children and their families, there are also two “family rooms” inside two of our chapter hospitals for families to use for relaxation and decompressing while still in the hospital. A huge growing pain associated with the charity was deciding whether or not consolidating the five houses into one chapter would be the most efficient thing to do. Executives at each house hesitated on the merger because they didn’t want it to feel too corporate, especially for families who are displaced for months on end while their child is sick. That being said, all of my supervisors I’ve talked to about the decision to become a large chapter have said that this decision has brought nothing but positive change to the organization as a whole!
A highlight from my week was luncheon we had at the chapter headquarters with the CEO and all the interns. It was a lunch full of powerful women, discussion, and learning about the organization as a whole, which was great! We got to hear about our CEO’s course of studies at undergrad and graduate school and how she ended up in her position at RMHC-CNI as the CEO. She encouraged us to ask questions about the ins and outs of the charity, and it was really interesting to hear different perspectives on our work from my peers. Ready for the next week to come!
