Arden Returns: A Sneak Peek Inside RMH Hamilton

All the pieces are finally coming together here at home. Little Arden and her brother return give you a little peek into the renovations and upgrades the house has gone through in the last few months. Arden couldn't believe the changes the house has gone through.

McDonald's Crew Winner #2!

We are very excited to share that the WEEK 2 WINNER of the fully stocked Red Bull fridge is – Karen McKinnon from McDonald's Restaurant 40285 in Waterloo!! Congratulations Karen!!

There are only a few more days until Christmas and bracelets are still a hot selling item. We would like to thank the Crew at McDonald's Restaurant on Hespeler Road in Cambridge for their amazing efforts this month. They are currently the top selling store with 2,690 bracelets sold so far!!

A big thank you to everyone who has purchased a bracelet in support of Ronald McDonald House Hamilton, you are helping us get closer to opening our doors.

Thank You Beamsville McDonald's!

Today we visited the newly renovated Beamsville McDonald's Restaurant to thank them for their extraordinary efforts raising funds for Ronald McDonald House Hamilton. The bracelets are selling so well at their store that they have asked for an extra 100 to be delivered!

One of the front line crew told us that she actually stayed at our House when her daughter was born. Here she is pictured with the Owner/Operator and the Operations Manager at the restaurant.

Thank you Beamsville McDonald's for all your hard work!

Chilli Cook-Off !

Yesterday the staff at Ronald McDonald House Hamilton hosted a holiday chilli luncheon for the construction workers on site at the House. It was a great way to say thank you for all of their hard work on our expansion project. There were 11 crock pots of chilli to choose from, some of the workers had 2,3 even 4 servings! We hope they all enojyed the lunch, we all had a great time putting it together for

them.

The Spirit of Giving

Although our House is closed for construction and things may not be looking very festive at the construction site, we have been lucky enough to recieve some wonderful holiday donations this week. Many of our donors have been calling and mailing in their annual holiday gift to the House.

On Monday one of our Campaign volunteers, Mark Cherney, dropped off the wrapped toys in this photo for our families! Yesterday we received toys, stuffed animals and beautiful snow globes from our friends at CHML through their Christmas Tree of Hope campaign. The families using our temporary home at the Visitor's Inn during the holidays will really appreciate these generous gifts.

We truly appreciate all the support from our community. If you are interested in making a holiday gift to Ronald McDonald House Hamilton please contact us at 905-521-9983.

And the winner is....

Yesterday we pulled the first winner from our McDonald's Crew program!Ryan L. from Iroquois Shore in Oakville is the lucky winner of our fully stocked Red Bull Fridge! We'll be pulling our next winner on Wednesday December 21st so we're encouraging the crew to keep up the great work for your chance to win!!

Although it's dark and rainy outside, we are not letting the weather get us down! Today we have some exciting things happening at the House. We are touring some of our friends from TD Bank this morning as they are donating $50,000 to the House so we can build a new Volunteer Lounge as part of our expansion project. We can't wait to show them how it's coming along and introduce them to our new Volunteer Manager, Shelley Harrison.

This afternoon we are stopping by the CHML radio station to accept our donation from this year's Christmas Tree of Hope fundraiser!

Now if only this rain would turn to snow and we could all get into the holiday spirit a little bit more... only 10 days until Christmas!

November/December Construction Update!

Celebrating our Volunteers

Last night the staff and volunteers of Ronald McDonald House Hamilton got together to celebrate the holidays at the beautiful Liuna Station. Since the volunteers at the House have been on hiatus during the construction, it was great to have everyone together again!

The event gave us a chance to update our volunteers on everything that has been happening at the House, introduce our new Board President, David Millen and give out the volunteer service pins for 3,5 and 10 years of service.

One of the engineers working on the site found himself in need of Ronald McDonald House this summer when his wife had an emergency C-section at McMaster Children's Hospital. Brad generously agreed to say a few words of thanks to our volunteers last night and introduced us all to his wife Sarah and baby boy, Griffin.

Here are some photos from the evening, including Gene Sloka, receiving his 10 year service pin last night!

See us on TV - Rogers Cable 20 "daytime"!

This afternoon Janice was interviewed live with the Gibson-Smith family on the Rogers Cable 20 show "daytime".

Kim Gibson-Smith and her son Parker are wonderful adovates of Ronald McDonald House Hamilton and the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the hospital. This family found themselves using our Family Room when Parker was diagnosed with Leukemia just weeks before Kim was expected to deliver her second child. With her daughter Cadence by her side and son Parker now in remission, it was a delight to spend time with them this afternoon and share their beautiful story.

Host, Susan Cook-Shearer was given a Help Our Doors Open t-shirt to help promote the sale of our gel bracelets this month. To watch the interview on "daytime" visit their website at www.rogerstv.com

McDonald's Crew are the best!

We stopped by a few of our participating McDonald's locations this afternoon to see how the program is doing. The crew are wonderful and very enthusisatic - they are doing a great job of raising funds for our House. Front line crew are wearing special RMHH t-shirts and some are even wearing hard hats just like the staff at Ronald McDonald House!

We have sold thousands of Ronald Mcdonald House Hamilton bracelets in the past week and with only a few weeks left in December, we're encouraging everyone to get to your local McDonald's and purchase a bracelet before they are all sold out!

Here are some photos of the amazing McDonald's crew in action and the tray liner with a QR code that takes you right to this blog!

The CHML/Y108 Christmas Tree of Hope

This weekend Ronald McDonald House Hamilton took part in the "Blitz Day Radiothon" at Limeridge Mall for the CHML/Y108 Christmas Tree of Hope Campaign. The Christmas Tree of Hope was developed to bring hope to kids and families struggling through the holiday season. Ronald McDonald House Hamilton receives an annual donation from the CHML/Y108 Children's Fund.

Here is a photo of

Janice from Ronald McDonald House being interviewed by Ted Micheals and Jen Watson from CHML 900.

Help Our Doors Open!

Staff of Ronald McDonald House have officially moved back in!! Although there is no public access to the House yet we have been able to move in (wearing hard hats and boots)and are now working from a safe area on the site :) As you can see by the photo, Janice really follows the rules as she wears her pink hard hat even at her desk!

It's great to be back but we can't wait to be able to open the doors for the many families who need us. To help us open our doors,local McDonald's Restaurants are selling Ronald McDonald House Hamilton gel bracelets for $2.00 during the month of December. With the holidays just around the corner, the bracelets make a great stocking stuffer and all proceeds from the sale of the bracelets will go directly to House. This program has only been running for two days and we've already sold 1,700 bracelets so make sure you get one before they're all gone!

There will be alot of things happening around here in the next few weeks so please keep visiting the blog to keep up to date with the all the action! We'll be sure to post pictures of the progress as well.

Happy Friday!

November Construction Update

We're getting close. Check out the video below to see just how close we are.

Another Construction Update

Construction Update

The roof is on, the windows are going in - our House is growing!

Another Construction Video

A special thanks to Darryl Hartwick and Paul Tipple for the ongoing video updates. I hope you agree - we are moving on up!!

Click here to see the construction workers in action:

http://www.screencast.com/t/Ds6JNWhtU

Construction Update

Here are some recent photos of our quickly expanding House:

Footsteps for Families Was a Great Success

It was a great day- the sun stayed out - the kids had fun and the food was awesome. Thank you all for coming out.

An Amazing Transformation in Record Time

Take a look at our latest construction video - big changes are underway - let's just hope the good weather continues.

http://www.screencast.com/t/Gyfke5ctu

The Big Move is Over

We've Moved

As of May 16th, Ronald McDonald House Hamilton is now exclusively a construction site. Families have been moved to the Visitors Inn (just down the street, and staff/volunteers are working both from the Ronald McDonald House Family Room (in McMaster Hospital) and our temporary location at 1175 Wilson St. E. (5 minutes from the House)
Construction and renovation have already begun inside the House and for those of you who have experienced our less-than-ideal heating/cooling system, you will be happy to know that our HVAC was the firts item to be ripped out.
As for the building, it is going up quickly. Our first floor now has been poured and we are starting to get an idea of just how big the new House will be. It all goes up from here!
NOT-SO-FUN-FACT: In th epast 4 weeks, we've lost more construction days to rain than we lost to snow over the entire winter!

Completion is still on target for the Fall.

GARAGE SALE

Please check out the poster below - we are having a huge garage sale. We can't grow unless we "purge", so come on by and see how the construction is progressing and to make a few purchases. Remember - someone elses junk is someone elses treasure!

Spring Time Is Here!

I don't know about you guys but I can hardly believe that it is already the middle of April. The sun is out now most days and the snow is hopefully gone for good until next winter!

Things are happening fast around the house the Footsteps For Families walk a thon is really just around the corner (don't forget to register @ http://www.footstepsforfamilies.com/).

Construction itself is well underway as of May 9th the house will be shut down for families and staff so construction on the interior may begin. It is hopeful that the construction will be complete by early Fall 2011 we all have our fingers crossed the construction is completed quickly!!! Ronald McDonald will move current families continue to the Visitors Inn and Ronald McDonald staff will work out of the Family Room at the McMaster Hospital.

Everyone at the house is really excited to have the house completed!

Check out our New Construction Video!

Hi Everyone,

When you get a chance you should take a look at the new video we have above!Things are really starting to change around here, it is unbelievable! We cannot wait until everything is done!

Last week our staff put on a pancake breakfast for our wonderful construction workers. These men have been here all winter working hard to build the addition to our house so many more families will be able to stay with us in the future! We are so greatful! Pictures will be available soon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!

Look At Our Backyard Now!!

Welcome to our new blog we will be posting updates about construction and information relating to the campaign itself each week. Today I just wanted to post some new pictures of our backyard so you could all see the changes that are happening.

Also next week RMHH staff will be cooking a pancake breakfast for our wonderfully hardworking construction fellows and the families of RMHH. I will post some pictures next week so you can meet them yourself.

Wow things are really starting to change around here!