Mary Kathryn McGriff contributed to this special guest blog! We would also like to thank to Emily Grace & Tyler Hoppes for their support.
Ronald McDonald House holds a special place in our family’s heart because of a precious baby girl who was born in January 2023 and lived 19 days at the UAB RNICU. While she went to be with Jesus, her parents were able to spend every waking moment of her life with her because of RMHCA.
This year in preparation for Church of the Highlands annual Serve Day where our local church goes out into communities to love our neighbors through practical projects and acts of service, a group of my friends and family reached out to RMHCA to see how we could help them and honor the sweet baby we love so much.
RMHCA’s request seemed small…they needed snacks!
Our group decided to collect snacks and make Grab & Go bags to deliver to the House on Serve Day July 13. At that point, they were thinking the turn out would be small, a few people, some bags of chips, a couple of notecards…no big deal. What actually happened left so many in awe!
RMHCA asked us if we could provide 73 bags so that each family at the Ronald McDonald House could receive one. We shared about the project and received an outpouring of donated items and funds. We asked RMHCA if it was OK to bring more than the 73 bags and they said, ‘Right now, we have no snacks in the House, so we are confident we will be able to use as many as you are able to provide!’
Within 24 hours, our Serve Day group had raised over $1,000 to serve families going through some of the hardest times of their lives! To say we were blown away is an understatement! At this point we felt confident we could make 150 snack bags.
On top of monetary donations that were used to purchase snacks and supplies, there was also an outpouring of donations from people throughout Church of the Highlands. People from other campuses drove to a central location to drop off supplies, meeting us with cars full of snacks and other donations.
At this point, we had a new challenge: there were more snacks than people available to make bags! We put out a call for additional helping hands and on Serve Day, we had all the help we could need!
More than 40 from Alabaster, Grandview, Grants Mill, Greystone, and Woodlawn all joined together to help RMHCA families. We spent the morning putting together 300 grab and go bags! We wanted to add something extra, so we placed sweet notes and little goodies inside, along with necessities like spoons and hand wipes.
We could have easily made another 300 bags, but decided to bring the snacks and supplies in boxes instead. Luckily, a family member had pulled a utility trailer to Church of the Highlands so there was room to load everything being delivered to RMHCA.
In a matter of weeks, our little group went from thinking ‘this is a small project where we will serve by ourselves’ to having more snacks and people serving than anyone could have imagined. It was truly incredible and a major blessing!
The cherry on top?
The group had enough supplies to also make snack bags to bless the nurses at the UAB RNICU. We happened to be greeted by a nurse that took care of the sweet baby whose life we have been grateful to honor in so many ways through this project. Truly, God winks everywhere!
RMHCA guest families and the team are so thankful for the efforts of Mary Kathryn, Emily Grace and Tyler’s family for leading this project, and to each person who gave! Providing snacks may seem like a small thing. To a family focused solely on their hospitalized child, it’s a lifeline.Â
If you would like to help too, please take a moment to make a gift to help keep our services free to families and check our Wish List for items to donate!
