There are a few days left to help the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester.
According to a news releases, owner/operators of 230 participating McDonald’s Minnesota Co-Op restaurants will donate 25 cents from every McCafe Shamrock Shake sold to Ronald McDonald House Charities-Upper Midwest and the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester. The fundraiser runs through March 17 at participating restaurants in greater Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
“Help us help families by purchasing a McCafe Shamrock Shake during this 10-day initiative,” Minnesota McDonald’s Co-Op President Tom Butler said in the release. “We’re proud to support Ronald McDonald House Charities, where families stay together when it matters most. We also appreciate our customers’ support for this wonderful cause.”
The Twin Cities Co-Op’s four previous Shamrock Shake fundraisers from 2014-’17 raised more than $343,000 for RMHC- UM. As of Jan. 1, the new Minnesota Co-Op is now statewide, making this the first year a portion of the proceeds will also be distributed to the Ronald McDonald House of Rochester.
Minnesota opened the doors to its first Ronald McDonald House in October 1979, just off the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus on Oak Street in Minneapolis and has provided a home-away-from-home for thousands of families whose children have faced medical challenges.
There are two Ronald McDonald Houses in the Twin Cities; the other is inside Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, the first house inside a hospital. The house on Oak St. has rooms for 48 families per night; the one inside Children’s can host 15 families. There are also two Ronald McDonald Family Rooms in St. Paul (one at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare and the other at Children’s), which provide spaces for families just steps from where their child is being treated.
The house in Rochester became a licensed Ronald McDonald House in 1990 and has 42 rooms with a maximum occupancy of five. There is a Ronald McDonald Family Lounge inside Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth.
The Shamrock Shake fundraiser is one of the initiatives that the McDonald’s Twin Cities Co-Op leads to support the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Others include the restaurant canister program, where customers who elect to donate their change can place it in canisters at the counter and drive-thru. Owner/operators also encourage pop tab recycling to be brought to local restaurants.
