Kristen Stewart (far left in picture) is staying here at the Ronald McDonald House for three weeks with her grandparents, Theresa and George Williams. Kristen is a very smart and grown up girl for a 7 year old. She has enjoyed making friends and playing with kids going through similar therapy here in Birmingham. To regular kids, they are handicap, but to each other, they are normal. The smiles on their faces are precious.
Like most of the children at the RMH, Kristen is a miracle child. Her family was told she wasn't going to be able to walk. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Kristen has grown up with very tight muscles in her lower back which caused her to walk around bent over like an old woman. Six months ago she underwent a Rhizotomy in her back, which is the cutting of some of the sensory nerve fibers leading from the muscles to the spine to loosen her back and make her able to stand straight. Now Kristen is using a walker and gaining strength every day through the therapy.
Theresa and George are very grateful for the safe and convenient place to stay. They walk out the door and around the corner and are at therapy. They like the almost nightly meals donated to the RMH. George said, "If it weren't for the RMH, we would have had to borrow money to come up here for the therapy Kristen needed." They enjoy getting to talk to the other parents around the house who are going through very similar situations. Theresa put it this way, "We all appreciate what we have."
Magic Moments is sending little Kristen and her cousin Destiny on a Disney Vacation with her grandparents for her 8th Birthday in September! Kristen is most excited to see Mickey Mouse!
On August 28th, the LDR Riding Club rolled into town, bringing with them a $10,619.42 donation and pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House!
The LDR Riding Club is a North Alabama Motorcycle Riding Club that has been supporting RMHCA with their "LDR Tab Run" for the past three years. This year, they collected 386 pounds of pop tabs for RMHCA! Not only did they break their previous year's record of pop tabs, but this year was the first time they held "WingStock", a fundraiser to benefit RMHCA. Thanks to all of their friends and fellow riders they were able to raise an incredible $10,619.42 for the House!
The staff at RMHCA greatly appreciates all that the LDR Club has done for our families and hope they have even more success next year!
Check out the pictures below from their trip down to Birmingham!
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama is supported by designations only through our United Way of Central Alabama affiliation. This means that we receive no money from United Way via allocations. If you wish to support Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama with your payroll deduction, please write us in on your United Way pledge card.
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) - For those of you who work for the Federal Government (civilian and military), please enter #55099 on your pledge form to support Birmingham's Ronald McDonald House.
For an example of a United Way of Central Alabama pledge form, click here to download.
Born with an enlarged heart, Laquisha Wyckof's body rejected it sending her into congestive heart failure at the age of twelve. Doctors gave her three months to live and quickly put her on the heart transplant list. On January 5, 2007, after waiting only nine days on the waiting list, Laquisha received her new heart at UAB in Birmingham. It took 2.5 months of recovery time in the hospital. During this time, her mom Lakeisha stayed at the Ronald McDonald House.
When she finally went home to Alexander City, it didn't take long for her body to reject this new heart too; forcing Lakeisha and Laquisha to rush back to Birmingham where she has spent much of the last few years with the doctors, working to force her body to accept the new heart.
The most recent event, on April 20th, Laquisha was back in Alexander City, hopeful that she was fine when her body once again rejected her new heart. She came back to UAB for 2 months, receiving steroids and other antidotes to make the body comply with the heart. She is now out of the hospital at the RMH awaiting the "OK" to go back to Alexander City. The doctors don't want her too far away in case her body goes back into rejection mode. Because of this, Lakeisha is grateful for how convenient the RMH is to UAB.
With medical bills piling up and a long drive back and forth, Lakeisha is appreciative for the Ronald McDonald House. She says the nightly volunteer donated meals are a blessing and delicious. Soon they will go home again and Laquisha is looking forward to getting back to her two sisters who are staying with their grandparents. We will send her off with hope that her body will love her new heart, but for now, we'll keep her comfortable with a warm and happy "home away from home" at the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
Yesterday, our friends from Brothers Recycling stopped by and picked up our largest collection of pop tabs ever! Because of the support of all of our pop tab collectors, we were able to fill a truck with all of our pop tabs. Check out the pictures below! This is all of the pop tabs we collected in just one month!
Thanks to supporters like you, we are half way to reaching our goal of $18,000 for the year! Remember to get your school, community group, workplace, and church involved in our pop tab program. The more people who join, the more the families that need to stay at the Ronald McDonald House are helped.
Don't forgot to visit our Pop Tab page to see our progress. Our "can-o-meter" keeps track of how much we have raised from pop tabs so far this year. With your help, we will be able to meet our goal this year!
Our volunteers help organize our Pop Tabs.
Brothers Recycling starts loading up pop tabs.
There were so many pop tabs around that they got stuck in his shoe!
The completed pick up! Our largest ever!
During Alabama's upcoming Tax Holiday Weekend, get all of your back-to-school shopping done and finish your look by joining RMHCA's Young Leadership Board for its "Shear Kindness" Hair Cut-a-thon!
Thanks to the generous support of the Riverchase Galleria and Aveda Institute, "Shear Kindness" will be held on Saturday, August 7th from 10am to 6pm on the second floor of the former Belk Department Store. Top area salons, including the Richard Joseph Studio, Aveda Institute, SportClips, Ulta, Regis Salon, and Master Cuts will all be giving hair cuts in return for a donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama. 100% of the proceeds raised from the event will go directly to RMHCA. Spread the word by joining the event on Facebook, mark your calendars for August 7th and come join us for this awesome event!
By the way, if you are a hair stylist and would like to participate at our event, please call Cheryl Oswalt at 205-930-5408. We also are in great need of volunteers for 2 shifts: 9:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. or 1:30 - 6 p.m. If you are willing to help out and get a RMH t-shirt, please contact Patricia Craft patricia.craft@rmhca.org or 205-212-7263.
Looking for something fun to do with the kids? How about spending the day at Alabama Adventure? We'll even help with the cost of admission! Simply take this coupon to Alabama Adventure and receive $10 off general admission.
Not only do you save money, but a portion of the proceeds will be donated to RMHCA! Thanks to a partnership with Alabama Advenure and our local McDonald's Restaurants, we will receive adonation every time you use this coupon now through July 31st! So take your family and friends to Alabama Adventure, have fun and help RMHCA all at the same time!
On October 25th, 2008, five year old Maddie fell off a four foot slide while playing outside in her backyard. She hit her head rupturing an unknown pre-existing Cerebral Arterio-Venous Malformation (AVM), an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain that usually forms before birth. Rupturing the AVM, caused Maddie to have a stroke and lose consciousness. For the next twenty-eight days, she remained in a forced coma while undergoing several brain surgeries that removed blood from her brain, replacing it with six transfusions. During those twenty-eight days, her parents, Gary and Mindy (who was pregnant with her fourth child, Trooper, at the time), remained by her side. Each day they would ask her doctors if she would live and each day the doctors could not give them a yes or no. They simply did not know.
Answering her family's prayers, Maddie did finally wake up and today, Maddie is a happy girl, always in good spirits. While her injury resulted in her inability to use her right side of her body or talk, she has come a long way. Putting her child's health first, Mindy has quit her job as a teacher in order to stay home and care for Maddie, making sure she receives the many different therapies she needs. Most recently, Maddie has participated in Constraint Induced Therapy, which forces her to use her right side (the side damaged from the injury) while restraining her left side. After many physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions both back home in Mobile and in Birmingham, Maddie can now walk and form short sentences. Maddie's doctor says this remarkable recovery is attributed to how young Maddie was when she ruptured her AVM. If she had hit her head later in life, she would have faced death or never have regained the use of her limbs.
Maddie's father, Gary, says they are grateful to the Ronald McDonald House, "There is no way you could afford a hotel for a month. $100 a night adds up quickly especially when you add in the eating out and hospital bills. With four kids, even McDonald's is a $30 trip. Being at the Ronald McDonald House allows you to grocery shop and store your food to save money." He adds, "It is great here too. Everyone is very helpful. The rooms are nice and we are comfortable." With the many family trips to Birmingham for Maddie's therapy, Gary has been forced to take a lot of time off work as a Mortgage Broker. With doctors' bills piling up, not having to worry about a place to stay has been a saving grace.
Soon to be fifteen year old, Logan Prickett used to be like every other daredevil teenage boy. He spent his time doing back flips into the pool and riding his dirt bike. However now he is cortically blind and is working hard every day in Physical Therapy relearning how to stand and walk.
On September 29, 2008, Logan went in for a MRI to check his pituitary gland because he was small for his age. When the IV Contrast Dye was injected, Logan suffered an extreme allergic reaction, sending him into full cardiac and respiratory arrest. Each time they tried to revive Logan his heart would stop beating again. They tried to revive him repeatedly for 40 minutes before the doctors and nurses backed away and recorded Logan's time of death. Then, miraculously, Logan's heart started beating on its own. His mother said, "To this day, I know it was all the people praying for him and God heard."
After three months in a coma, Logan's family received another miracle when against all odds Logan woke up. While the lack of oxygen did cause damage, Logan is back in school and doing very well. In addition to school, he is working through something called Spyder Therapy in order to regain self-mobility. He is making amazing progress, surpassing all expectations. He is already able to use his arms to move his own wheelchair, and can reach a standing position.
The Prickett Family is thankful to have found a place to stay so close to the hospital. In addition to it being a financial blessing, Mrs. Prickett is happy to have found such a comforting community here at the Ronald McDonald House. She said, "If there is anywhere you can see God's hand moving, it is here in this House."
Logan is thrilled to enjoy homemade food instead of the "fake food" from the hospital. He said he gets to eat real eggs that come from real chickens instead of the so called "eggs" at the hospital. He enjoys sitting in the backyard by our Ronald McDonald House statue, and last week, the real Ronald came for a special visit to spend time with Logan and the other kids staying at the House. Logan gives all of us at the House a reason to smile with his amazing attitude and sense of humor, and we are glad that the Prickett Family has chosen to call the Ronald McDonald House home for a little while.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama Opens Ronald McDonald Family Room at DCH Regional Medical Center Tuscaloosa
TUSCALOOSA -- Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama will open the Ronald McDonald Family Room at DCH Regional Medical Center Tuesday to serve families of children on the pediatrics unit and neonatal intensive care unit.
The grand opening ceremony will be Tuesday, March 23, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. with the ribbon cutting and comments at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome.
The room opens as a partnership of Ronald McDonald House Charities, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama, DCH Regional Medical Center, the DCH Foundation, Inc. and local Tuscaloosa County McDonald's owner/operators, as well as hundreds of foundations, corporations, service clubs, doctors and individuals throughout the DCH Health System service area.
The Ronald McDonald Family Room at DCH Regional Medical Center is the only one in Alabama, and it's the 80th in the United States. It offers a special place of respite, relaxation and privacy for families within footsteps of their child's bedside. The room includes a kitchen, light snacks, a computer, Internet access, a large-screen television and recliners.
"We are pleased to finally have the room open and available to the patients at DCH Regional Medical Center," RMHCA Executive Director Mike Singer said. "We are grateful to our many partners in the community who helped make it happen."
"Research shows that a family's presence in the hospital helps children heal faster,"DCH CEO Bryan Kindred said. "The Ronald McDonald Family Room will give families a place to relax and unwind and still be near their child and their child's medical team."
RMHCA operates Birmingham's Ronald McDonald House, the only affordable provider of temporary housing focused on serving sick or injured children and their families who must travel to Birmingham for medical care.
# # #
.jpg)
Rashunda Jackson seems like any other sixteen year old girl. She likes to hang out with her friends, swim, dance, and play baseball. However, in eighth grade, she started having health problems that have kept her from her favorite activities. At the age of fourteen Rashunda and her family began visiting doctors searching for an explanation for pain in her stomach. At first there were no answers and the problems seemed to decrease, but at the end of her ninth grade year she became very ill and was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis of the liver is when scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue, partially blocking the flow of blood through the liver. In late extreme cases of cirrhosis like Rashunda's the only option is a transplant. Her life changed very suddenly when she was referred to UAB where they placed her on the transplant list. After about a year of ups and downs she received her new liver two days after her sixteenth birthday. When telling her story she said it really was the sweetest sixteen she could have asked for.
Throughout everything Rashunda has been blessed to have the support of her family and friends. Although her parents are here with her in Birmingham, she has five older brothers and four older sisters at home. Then of course there are the friends who came all the way from home to visit her in the hospital during her recovery. After being released from the hospital, her family joined us at the House and is expecting to be here with us for about two weeks before returning home to Canton, Mississippi. For them home is located around four hours away from Birmingham. Finding a temporary home at the house has provided the family a place to stay away from the hospital so Rashunda can receive outpatient care.
Rashunda is enjoying her time here relaxing outside of the stressful hospital environment. She happily stated that here at the Ronald McDonald House there are no hospital beds, no one waking her up at five am to take blood, and hospital food has been replaced with home made meals by our volunteers. It feels much more like a home. This weekend her brothers and sisters will come to the House to spend time together as a family. For Rashunda the Ronald McDonald House is a temporary home while she transitions back into her busy life. We are happy to say that we expect the Manney's to return home very soon where Rashunda can get back to working with the praise dance team. She said she already has three dances choreographed in her head that she can't wait to get working on.
To see some of the other families who have called the Ronald McDonald House 'home', visit our Families Section here!
On March 6th, students from UAB stopped by the Ronald McDonald House and helped spruce up the House for the families staying here. The students who visited us were participating in UAB's biannual "Into the Streets" program, which is sponsored by the Leadership and Service Council. This program gives students at UAB an opportunity to volunteer and give back to the Birmingham community for a couple of hours each semester.
While students participating in "Into the Streets" volunteer at many different places around town, they have volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House going back at least five years. Each semester, the volunteers visit the House and help clean the living room, kitchen, halls, and courtyard. They help us give the forty one families staying at the Ronald McDonald House a lovely, clean place to rest while their children are in the hospital.
Jessica Bridges, co-chair of the "Into the Streets" program, said that the Ronald McDonald House has been chosen as a recipient of their program because they "love what it stands for, which is being a helping hand to families when they are in a time of need."
We at RMHCA thank all of the students who participated in "Into the Streets" and appreciate all that they do for the Ronald McDonald House as well as the Birmingham community at large. We look forward to seeing them again next Fall!
For more information on "Into the Streets" as well as the Leadership and Service Council, please visit their website at www.uab.edu/lsc/.
"Into the Streets" is featured here as March's Volunteer of the Month.
Visit our 'Recent News' section each month to read about our latest volunteer!
Our new Family Room at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa is starting to look great! Take a look at the pictures below to see how our progress is coming along. Thank you to all of the donors who have helped make our Family Room come to life! Without your help, families wouldn't have a place of respite, healing, and hope...just steps away from their child's bedside.
For a pdf version of our latest newsletter, please click here. To see some of our past newsletters, please go here.
To receive future newsletters, please click here to be added to our mailing list.
We got a surprise today at the Ronald McDonald House: Snow! The families and staff at the House had a great time playing in the snow! Take a look below to see how much fun we had.
The Fugate Family
The Crenshaw Family
Development Manager, Patricia Craft
Administrative Associate, Erin Baier
D. J. Brown
Operations Manager, Chris Ellis
Construction is already underway for the new Family Room at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and we need your help! Slated to open in January, this family room will provide a respite for families in the hospital with their sick children. With your help, we will be able to provide families a place torest, relax, and feel at home - at a time when home might seem so far away. Visit any Tuscaloosa area McDonald's (including those in Cottondale, Centreville, Greensboro, Fayette, and Northport) through the end of this month and donate $1 (or more) towards the construction of our new Family Room.
When a child is critically ill, parents are reluctant to leave the hospital. Yet they desperately need a break from the ongoing stress of beeping monitors and busy intensive care units.Research shows that a family presence in the hospital helps children heal faster.Staying close by allows parents to better communicate with their child's medical team.
This 80th family room to open in the United States needs your help to becompleted. Remember you can designate your end of the year gift to the Family Room at DCH Tuscaloosa by donating online at our website. For additional information, please contact Mike Singer at 205-212-7262 or mike.singer@rmhca.org.