Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Kansas on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 226
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Kansas provides crucial support to families whose children need medical care, functioning as a home away from home where families can stay at no cost while remaining close to their hospitalized children. Their historic house offers eight private guest bedrooms, meals, transportation, and emotional support for families during difficult times.
• Supporting primarily families with newborns in neonatal intensive care, assisting approximately 100 families annually
• Housing families for as long as needed - their longest stay last year was 150 nights
• Providing all services at absolutely no cost to families already facing medical expenses
• Hosting their biggest fundraiser, the Viva Las Vegas Gala, on August 23rd with a goal of raising $160,000
• Offering multiple ways for people to help: collecting pop tabs, linking Dillon's Plus cards, shopping their Amazon wishlist, or rounding up at McDonald's
Visit rmhcneks.org for more information about the organization or to purchase gala tickets. Sponsorships for the event range from $250 to $5,000, and they welcome auction item donations until August 1st.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. Welcome back on a Monday morning. The GMCF Community Hour here on NewsRadio KMAN is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. We've got our fingers at a lot of things, and you can always find out more about the work of the foundation at our website is mcfksorg. Our next guest is here on behalf of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Kansas. She is the Director of Business Operations. Let's welcome April Sidesinger. Good morning, april.
Speaker 2:Good morning.
Speaker 1:We're delighted to have you here and we get you in, I think, once a year here on the program to talk about your big fundraiser of the year, and we're delighted to have you here to talk about a big gala coming up. But before we do that, why don't you give us just a brief elevator speech on what the Ronald McDonald House of Charities does?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so brief elevator speech. We are here to support families that have a child that's receiving medical care, whether that child is here for a day appointment or for a longer stay in the hospital. We are here to support those families, providing housing or any items that they may need and be a home away from home. Of course, we also provide support to mothers that are going through high-risk pregnancy or families that are going through adoption.
Speaker 1:You are based in Topeka.
Speaker 2:Yes, we are.
Speaker 1:What is your area of coverage?
Speaker 2:We are in Northeast Kansas, so kind of anybody that needs care that is transferred into the Stormont Vale or St Francis Hospital or coming to Topeka for a day appointment. We support those families. They do have to live outside of Topeka city limits to be able to use our house, but Northeast Kansas is our basis.
Speaker 1:So you provide support for those families that have a kiddo that's got to get some medical care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so primarily our families. Just the way it goes is neonatal families. Those are primarily who we support, and so they are longer stays because they have a newborn that is needing care. They may have been born in Topeka, but they don't live in Topeka, or they were transferred in for that additional care in the NICU at the Stormont-Bale or St Francis Hospital.
Speaker 1:April. Do you have an idea of approximately how many families you assist on a yearly basis?
Speaker 2:Last year we assisted around 100 families. I want to say it was a little less, but that was last year's number. So around 100 families were assisted and I would say about 95% of those families were families with a newborn.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Well, thanks for doing that type of work. It's got to be rewarding for these families, because they're probably just scared to death about, you know, the possibility of their child and receiving medical care, and for some of them, quite some time too.
Speaker 2:Yes, Last year our longest stay was 150 nights. Their baby, I mean, she was born very early and they were not from this area. They had no family support and they didn't know where they were going to stay, so they were able to provide that housing for her. Hot meals, they had transportation back and forth from the hospital if they needed it and just a place to come back and relax and be able to be close to their child and not worry about where their next meal was going to come from, where they were going to stay that night and if they were going to be close to the hospital.
Speaker 1:Well, good that you're available to do that. Now, one of the things associated with any nonprofit is an opportunity to raise money, and you have your biggest fundraiser of the year coming up, and let's talk a bit about what this is all about.
Speaker 2:Yes. So the Viva Las Vegas Gala is coming up on August 23rd, so get ready for a get even an Elvis Presley in the crowd and it's a fun night. There's themed drinks, themed meals and all the proceeds raised go to supporting the Ronald McDonald House. Our goal this year is to raise around $160,000. That makes up 20% of our annual budget, because 92% of our annual budget is raised by fundraisers grants, individual and corporate giving. So this is our largest fundraiser and our most important fundraiser to raise our budget to run the house for the year. The other 8% of it is raised through the McDonald's donation boxes and other direct support. 92% of it is up to our community to support us.
Speaker 1:Where do you have the gala?
Speaker 2:It is going to be at Townside Towers here in Topeka, Kansas. They've hosted it the last couple of years. It's a really fun night.
Speaker 1:Sounds like fun. I think I got a free schedule that day. I'm going to have to look into that. Let's talk about getting hold of tickets, and maybe we have a listener who'd like to help as a sponsor for the event. What's that process like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so getting home tickets is pretty easy. You can go to our website, which is wwwrmhcneksorg. We have an events tab. You just click on that. Click on the Viva Las Vegas it's all colorful themed and it'll direct you to our GiveSmart website, which you can purchase tickets. They're $80 per ticket, but if you have a group of you coming, you can purchase a table of 10 for $750. So that's a discount there, and then if you're just wanting to sponsor it as well as attend, you could sponsor it. We have sponsorships starting at $250. This title is beginner's luck and it has different levels, and then we have tiers ranging up to $5,000 titled the all in sponsorship.
Speaker 1:All in, that seems pretty appropriate. It is a gala, you got a little Vegas thing. You might as well throw some good old gambling verbiage in that Well done.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we love a good theme. We are all in with the theme.
Speaker 1:What are some of the auction items that you have? And I know you're still collecting, so maybe somebody has something they'd like to pony up and provide for you. Yeah, so Maybe somebody has something they'd like to pony up and provide for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we are collecting We'd like to get everything in by August 1st Some of the auction items we have been lucky this year. We have some beautiful jewelry pieces from some different jewelers that have supported us, to even some of our live auction items. We're collecting auction items for a trip to Las Vegas, with a stay and events there to supporting, you know, the Chiefs and the Royals and getting tickets to those games and some local events. And we even have a Children's yes Day where we're supporting all the different zoos in Kansas and so kids families can go to all these different zoos and support Kansas and have a Kids yes Day.
Speaker 1:One of the big challenges and I'm just going to speak off the cuff here about this is because you are in Topeka and you don't probably get as much visibility in the Manhattan area where we are based here with the GMCF. But what are some of the ways that us outsiders or I guess we're not really outsiders, but we're in the perimeter of the Ronald McDonald House charities what are some ways we can get involved and help out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's as simple as collecting the pop tabs off of your pop that you drink your sparkling water. Yep, collect your pop tabs, recycle those. You can take them to your local center. You don't have to take the drive to Topeka to donate them. You can take them to your local recycling center and then have them make the check out to the Ronald McDonald House when you're doing that collection. Or if you have a Dillon's in your area or you shop at Dillon's, doing a Dillon's Plus card and using our organization code, it does donations off of that Dillon's Plus card straight to us and just supports us through that way and also our Amazon wishlist. You can support us through our Amazon wishlist, checking that we update it weekly so you can see what our biggest needs in the house at time if you're looking for a location to donate to.
Speaker 1:What are some of the things you typically look for when you create that list? What goes into that process?
Speaker 2:So we look at our biggest needs at the time. So we do a weekly wish list on our Facebook and we post our biggest needs and then we kind of mirror that off of our Amazon wish list so we look maybe for some deals that are going on in Amazon right then or what we're using, so it can change by season kind of what we're using. You can say, in the fall we have a lot of lawn care needs because we run a house and it has lawn needs, and so you'll see more of like lawn care, trash bags or items that would help us with yard work. In the summertime it's a lot more. You'll see bottled water and food items lots of breakfast items are on there and cleaning supplies, because we like to keep the house as clean as possible. We disinfect daily multiple times so that families feel healthy here, so they don't take anything to the hospital with them, and so we run through those supplies quite a bit and they're usually on our Amazon wish list.
Speaker 1:And that may be one of the misnomers. Here you actually have a house where these families get to stay. Give me a little description of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is a historical house. It was built in 1906. It is beautiful. If you are ever in the Topeka area, one of my favorite things is to give tours of our house and to show off the history of it. It has eight guest bedrooms, so we can house up to eight guest families at a time, and they're all different sizes. They each have their own private bathroom, but we are a typical house. We're in a residential neighborhood and so it's very quiet where we're at, and so that gives peace to our families. They can go out to the playground and play if they want, but we function as a house. We make meals for the families every day. The families can use our kitchen and make their own meals if they want. There's a playroom for kids to play at. There's laundry for our families. We try to provide anything that they would need.
Speaker 1:Is there a cost actually for any of these families if they are staying?
Speaker 2:there at the Ronald McDonald House there is no cost for our families to stay with us? None whatsoever. We do a share a night program where you can donate to share a night and support our families. It is $25 a night to support a family but we do not take any of that cost to our families. There is no cost whatsoever.
Speaker 1:How many can you house at one time?
Speaker 2:We can house up to eight guest families at a time. Different sizes, but, yes, each one gets their own private bedroom with private bath. Different types of beds in each room.
Speaker 1:What a tremendous service you provide. That is awesome. Anything else you'd like to share with us? April, before we let you go.
Speaker 2:Oh no, just reminding everybody. Another great way to support from afar is rounding up at McDonald's. When you're checking out with your McDonald's order, make sure you ask to round up. All that change goes towards the Ronald McDonald House in Northeast Kansas, if you're in the in the northeast area, and to reach out. If you guys have any donations for the gala or want more information about an antenna, we'd love to have you all right.
Speaker 1:the website again is r m h, c, n e k s. That stands for ronald mcdonald house charities of Northeast Kansas, and you can also find a link on our GMCF website, which is mcfksorg April Seidsinger, director of Business Operations for the Ronald McDonald House in Topeka and serving all of Northeast Kansas. Thanks for joining us and good luck with your gala on August 23rd.
Speaker 1:Thank you luck with your gala on August 23rd. Thank you. Up next on the program, kaylee Reynolds is a co-founder of Homefront Heroes. We've had them in before. They do some great work for our military families and so we'll talk about that when we return on the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN.