A total of $1 million has been raised for Ronald McDonald House charities by patrons of 14 McDonald’s restaurants in New Hampshire.
“You know, every bit counts,” stated 14-restaurant owner Michael Gambino. “The 20 cents, the 30 cents, it really adds up and we’ve had our eyes set on reaching this million dollars.”
Customers rounding up on their receipts helped to raise some of the funds.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of all of our employees,” Gambino stated. “I’m so thankful to our customers for their round up dollars. Our company is just extremely passionate about the Ronald McDonald House charities, the mission and really helping families stay close to the hospital.”
The foundation gives families a place to stay while their kids are in the hospital receiving therapy.
“Our whole mission is to keep families close while their children are going through critical medical care,” Lauren Hoops-Schmieg, the CEO of RMHC New England stated. “We don’t ask families to pay a single dollar to stay with us. A million dollars provides 6,000 nights of stay. So that makes a huge impact when there’s so much stress.”
The secret to this accomplishment was a little friendly competition and teamwork.
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“We looked at this as an opportunity to help families with sick children,” area supervisor Drew Turner stated. “So the stores got involved and the general managers, who were very competitive, would go out each and every day and every week to see how much money they could actually raise.”
“Every little penny helps. This is the first time our chapter has ever had a McDonald’s owner operator be able to say, ‘Here’s a million dollars,'” Hoops-Schmieg stated.
According to Turner, their next strategy is to expand.
“Hopefully, we’ll get more people involved in this and we can take this to an even higher level,” he stated.
