rmhspokanetour

Tour of Spokane Ronald McDonald House

Sunnyside First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Dahl, took digital images of the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane so we could all see what it looked like. Mrs. Dahl sent our class the disk of digital images to look at in a slide show on our computer. Her class wrote a story to go with the slides so we could have a slide and "word" tour of the Spokane Ronald McDonald House.

Join us for their tour!

This is the outside of the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane. It was built in 1987.

Right inside the door, there is a giant house for collecting pull tabs. People collect pull tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.Then the Ronald McDonald House recycles the pull tabs to earn money to take care of the house and people who stay there. This house looks just like the teeny ones that we each have at home to collect pull tabs. People put their pull tab collections in this giant house and when it fills up, they put all the pull tabs in a plastic bin and store the bin down in the basement of the Ronald McDonald House.

When sick children stay at the Ronald McDonald house, they can hug these stuffed animals in the shared living room. Stuffed animals feel good because they're safe and kind of like hugging a real person. Some are furry like a real animal. Kids like to hug them because they are furry and playful.

Kids can talk to or hug stuffed animals like these. Kids can play with them. Kids can sit in the huge stuffed animal's lap. Sitting with a stuffed animal is good, because it helps you think about other things instead of thinking about being sick all the time.

Kids can have fun in this play area while their parents are doing other things like reading, cooking meals and doing laundry.

There are three cooking areas in this kitchen so that people can cook for their families. Some volunteer groups bake cookies and bring them for all the people who are staying there to share. It is cool that there are rainbow decorations on the tables because the decorations make kids and their families feel more happy. If there are more than three families, they can take turns cooking in the kitchen. People can use these kitchens at any time of the day or night. Each family brings their own food to cook. Sometimes, volunteers come in and cook meals. There's extra food like flour, sugar, herbs and spices in the kitchens for the families.

There are fourteen bedrooms for families. They have beds and warm blankets so people don't have to sleep on the floor. Each bedroom has a telephone so that families can call people when they need to. Some helping people make colorful quilts for the beds. On the other side of the wall is a bathroom for each family. The pictures on the wall make the room look nice. Some of the bathrooms are handicap accessible with bars to help people stand up and enough room for a wheelchair. People can bring games and books into their bedrooms. There is a closet for each family.

This is the laundry room. The people don't have to pay money to use the washer and dryer. This is nice because when families stay there for a long time, they can wash their clothes.

This playroom is for children to play in. There is a video camera up high to watch the children if their parents aren't in there with them. People in the office upstairs can also watch them.

There are twelve big bins under the stairs down in the basement. They're used to store the pull tabs that people donate to the Ronald McDonald House. They take them to the recycling center and get 50 cents for each pound of pull tabs. They get 500 to 600 pounds every other week! When the bins are emptied out, they are brought back to the house to be refilled again and again and again. It costs $12 a night for a family to stay in the house. If a family doesn't have enough money, the money earned from the pull tabs helps pay for room so that the family could still stay there.

This happy home quilt was made to decorate the house and to make people happy when they look at it. Other people have made special quilts to donate to the house too.

This statue at the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane is of a lady holding her child. If you look carefully, you can see that there is a suitcase by them. It seems like they are going to the Ronald McDonald House. The sculptor wanted to help and so she made this so that people would look at it and think that this must be a very nice place. It is made of a special metal called bronze.

There is a sign below the sculpture. It tells the name of the sculpture, "The Strongest Bond", and the name of the sculptor who was Dorothy Fowler. She is a famous sculptor in Spokane who has designed many other sculptures there.

This last picture is a close-up of the statue.

After we looked at the slide show and story that Mrs. Dahl's class sent us, we sent them an email message to thank them for the images and story. We also loaned them the children's books about hospitals that we were reading in our classroom. We used our First Class email program to send the message in different colors of letters and with large font. Here is our email message:

Friday, April 2, 1999

Subject: Ronald McDonald House Slides

Dear Mrs. Dahl's Class,

We really liked the slides of the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane.

Thank you for letting us look at the slides. we downloaded the pictures from the computer disk onto our computer so we can look at them anytime.

Thank you. Mrs. Dahl, for taking the pictures with your digital camera so we could see how the families can stay in the Ronald McDonald House.

It is good that the parents can watch their children in the playroom.

Ii is nice that the families can have closets to keep games in if they bring them.

We would like to make a comfort quilt with smiling faces for the Spokane Ronald McDonald House.

From,

Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Class

Mrs. Dahl's class sent a reply to our email message. Here is their message to us:

Wednesday, April 7, 1999

Subject: Re:Ronald McDonald House Slides

Dear Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Class,

Thank you for writing to us about the slide show we sent you. we are glad you liked it.

We think it is really nice that they help families stay there when their children are in the hospital.

Are you collecting pull tabs for the Ronald McDonald House like we are right now?

We like it that you are doing the Ronald McDonald Project too. It is fun to do this together!

Could we help you make a smiley face quilt for the house? Could we do it all together as a project to Show them how we care about them?

Thank you for sharing the books about how it is in a hospital with us. we learned a lot from those books. we would like to visit our Pullman Hospital with you sometime! Would you like to go with us?

Sincerely,

Mrs. Dahl's Class

Our two classes decided to both visit the Pullman Hospital and to both make smiling face comfort quilts!

***All documents on our classroom web pages are copyrighted. The text and images are for educational use only. Please honor the integrity and original ownership of all text, design and images. We request that you not replicate the webpage designs nor publish the images and text without permission. For permission contact Kristi Rennebohm Franz at kfranz@psd267.wednet.edu