Ronald McDonald House Collection Drive

The UAB Graduate School is hosting a month-long Collection Drive for the Ronald McDonald House. It is also one of several events that are part of UAB’s Community Month.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that provides comfort and care to the whole family when they must travel far from home to seek medical care for their sick or injured child. Each night, the organization cares for 41 families at the Ronald McDonald House, located just one block from Children’s of Alabama and UAB Hospital.

In 2017, the Ronald McDonald House provided 896 family stays for 618 families, many of whom traveled to Birmingham more than once to seek medical care for their child. There is no fee to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, which saves families an average $175 per day on expenses when they must be away from home. The top five diagnoses for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama families are premature birth, heart/cardiovascular, brain/neurological, cancer and stomach/GI Tract.

The Graduate School will be collecting items for the kitchen, as well as items for the Happy Wheels Cart, which is a hospitality program that provides snacks, juice boxes or water and activity books to patients and their parents who come and go from two of the Children’s Hospital clinics.

Items can be dropped off at the Graduate School Office in Lister Hill Library, room G03 throughout the month.

Needed Items include:

• 55-gallon black trash bags
• Disposable food service gloves
• Paper plates, bowls and plastic utensils
• Paper towels and paper napkins
• Coffee cups
• Coffee creamer and sugar
• Arificial sweetener
• Dishwasher detergent/liquid
• Dish towels
• Tupperware
• Napkins
• Ziploc bags
• 8-ounce bottled water
• Small juice boxes
• Individually wrapped Rice Krispie treats
• Individually wrapped snack-size Goldfish
• Individually wrapped snack-size fruit snacks
• Individually wrapped snack-size Cheez-its