Kimber Delivers 92,000 Pop Tabs to Ronald McDonald House

Kimber Downes and her mother, Bridgette, delivered approximately 92,000 pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in Sioux Falls. The tabs will further the mission of the RMHC of South Dakota. The organization provides a safe place for families to stay while their child is undergoing medical treatment. The RMH offers all the comforts of home at no cost to the family.

The tabs Kimber and Bridgette brought to the RMH were collected by the Milbank Middle School Student Council as part of their third quarter service learning project. With help from all the middle school students and staff, the group gathered 92 pounds of tabs. No one counted each tab, but RMHC estimates one pound of tabs contains about 1,000 tabs. 

The RMH in Sioux Falls opened in 1983, nearly 10 years after the first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia in 1974. Dr. Audrey Evans and Philadelphia Eagles player Fred Hill teamed up after Fred’s daughter had undergone treatment for leukemia. The duo wanted to create a place for families that needed to travel to get medical care. The owners and operators of McDonald’s in Philadelphia helped to make the first House possible by donating proceeds from the sales of Shamrock Shakes. They named the House after the restaurant’s clown Ronald McDonald.

Since 1974, McDonald’s and RMHC have helped families around the world. The two are separate entities, however, and the McDonald’s Corporation does not provide all of the RNHC funding.  Each Ronald McDonald House must develop their own fundraising relationships.

Among the many ways the RMHC South Dakota works to raise funds is to provide McDonald’s customers with the opportunity to donate by using in-store canisters and with the Round Up program.  Customers are invited to round up their transaction to the nearest dollar. The extra change then goes to support the Ronald McDonald House in Sioux Falls.

Submitted Photo