As far as I know the Ronald McDonald House charities will accept cash donations from anyone. I belong to a couple of professional organizations that select RMH as one of our annual charities. You are right - it truly is a wonderful place.
I didn't mean to at all to slight what you are doing - it's always wonderful to help a worthwhile cause in any fashion. It's just that people don't always realize the cash benefit compared to the effort of collecting pull tabs is really tiny. Hopefully the cans are being recycled and that money put to use elsewhere. But I've also known of situations where the tabs were pulled by well-meaning people (especially those thinking they can help towards dialysis) and the cans THROWN AWAY. The cans themselves are much more valuable.
JHB- the Ronald McDonald house by us will only accept the tabs. I'm not sure what their reasons are for it but thats all they want from us. I guess each Ronald McDonald house is different.
They were a great help to my sister both emotionally & financially when she was going through everything with my nephew. They are still helping her out when she brings my niece in for treatments.
I really don't know how they've been with others, but they've allows been there for my sister, her son & know for my niece.
Bertha, on the Ronald McDonald pull tab collections...
Be aware that they only started this in the late 80's because of the urban myth that had people collecting tabs for kidney dialysis and then nowhere to send them. Of course every bit helps, but it's a program with very low benefit. Pull tabs are only worth 40 cents a pound which translates into something like $475 for every MILLION tabs donated.
It's been suggested that with all the effort involved, it would be be far better for groups to collect the whole aluminum cans, sell them to a local recycling center, and then donate the money to Ronald McDonald House.
Not to change the subject but C.Brooks brought up CF. My nephew died from CF so this is very close to my heart.
Our school collects soda can tabs and we send them to the local Ronald McDonald House. They recycle them to help pay for cancer treatments for children.
This is one way of us teaching our children to give back to others. It costs nothing yet helps so many!
One of our most popular (and easiest) ongoing fundraisers is Cupcake Friday. Once per month (on a Friday....) we sell cupcakes to each child for 25cents. Of course it's optional but everyone buys one. Teachers sign up for a time to either come by the table (so the kids can pick their own cupcakes) or they have us bring by a tray of cupcakes. We sell all the extras (after each class has had a chance to buy one) after school.
All the cupcakes are donated. We ask each classroom once to provide the cupcakes (2 dozen) and we have 4 - 5 people who volunteer every month to bake, even if it isn't their child's classroom's turn. We also have emergency bakers on hand if there arent' enough volunteers.
So it costs us nothing, the kids love it, and we make about $200 per month (we have about 600 students in the school and always sell out our extras after school).
Another nice thing about this is that sometimes parents buy the cupcakes for the entire class as a birthday treat. And the class that has the best parent attendance to our PTO meetings gets their cupcakes for free. So we use it to make money and also as little rewards.
