Last Thursday night at the CWA meeting members were inspired by a presentation that was put on by Kelly Hughes, Manager of Ronald McDonald House Orange. Ronald McDonald House in Orange provides accommodation to families who have a sick or injured child at the Orange Health Service. They provide 8 family units that sleep up to 6 people and are all located within a 3-minute walk to the hospital.
Ronald McDonald House in Orange has been running since the 13th April 2015 and has helped up to three Canowindra families stay for a combined total of 48 nights. The Ronald McDonald House in Orange has supported 209 families who live further than 50km from Orange. This accumulates to 311 stays with a total of 1761 nights of accommodation provided. Volunteers are at the heart of this organisation with over 140 active volunteers today, with just last year a total of 13 889 hours of unpaid work taken out.
Ronald McDonalds vision is to be a lead charity in Western New South Wales, striving to improve the health and wellbeing of
children and their families. Ronald McDonald House Charities creates, finds and supports programs that help seriously ill or injured children and their families.
CWA secretary Vicky Grant said, “the talk was great, everyone really enjoyed it!” The presentation demonstrated the importance of this service specifically to Canowindra and surrounding areas. “It takes a lot of strain off families by providing them with accommodation for their families and people can access this service for no cost,” Vicky said. CWA thoroughly enjoyed the informative evening and were then on to discuss events coming up for this year.
“Our next event will be at the Canowindra Balloon Glow where we will be having a food stall so watch out for us!” Vicky Grant said.