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New Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program Manager

Jennifer Dean will fill the role of Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program Manager beginning November 7, 2011. She has extensive experience and knowledge in the state of health care in Northwest Arkansas. We are confident Jennifer will be a great asset to our organization.

Now hiring- Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program Manager

If you are interested in joining the RMHC of Arkoma team as the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program Manager, please click here to apply. 

Announcing our new Ronald McDonald Family Room Manager: Ginger Thompson

Please give a warm welcome to our new Ronald McDonald Family Room Manager, Ginger Thompson.  Ginger has been with RMHC of Arkoma since November 2010.  During that time she has worked as a Program Associate at the Ronald McDonald Family Room.  She also led the first Pop Tab Pandemonium Program for RMHC of Arkoma throughout the River Valley and Eastern Oklahoma. 

Feel free to contact her at ginger@rmhcofarkoma.org.

Pop Tab Pandeomium Kicking Off this Week

This week, in celebration of Earth Day, we are holding our First Ever Pop Tab Pandemonium with 5 schools in the River Valley!  We appreciate their participation and look forward to revealing the results later this week!

If you are interested in participating in the next school year, please contact Ginger Thompson atginger@rmhcofarkoma.org. 

Ronald McDonald Family Room featured in At Home in Arkansas April Issue!

Thank you to At Home in Arkansas for featuring the Ronald McDonald Family Room and our amazing Interior Designer, Joshua Jones, in their April issue.  We are very honored to be included in the magazine and on their blog as the "Room of the Week"!

Check out the full article here.

And their blog here for the Room of the Week article- with lots of before and after pictures!

Elyssa Bella Martin

"On February 7th, 2011 my husband, my 2 boys, Josh (age 14) and Brian (age 11), and I woke early. We had to be at St. Edward Mercy at 5:00 am to induce. We were all very excited for the birth of our baby girl! We arrived at the hospital and after checking in were taken to a labor and delivery room to prepare for the birth of Elyssa. Everything went really well and the day seemed to go by quickly for the four of us. Around 2:30 pm, Josh and Brian were taken to the waiting room and at 2:33 pm I gave birth to Elyssa Bella Martin who weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz and was 20 inches long. She was 36 weeks but pink as a rose, and just as pretty as one. She was just perfect and my family was complete- all 5 of us. Josh and Brian just loved her. She was taken to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for testing and family came by to see her. Life was perfect... until late that night. 

That evening we received a call from the NICU. The nurse asked if I was Mrs. Martin and said that my baby was sick and that Dr. Cheshier had turned her care over to Dr. Coloso. My heart sunk as she told me that the doctor wanted to speak to us. We quickly made our way to the NICU and upon entering saw Elyssa in a big plastic box with a lot of tubes in her body. The world just stopped. I felt warm tears fall as the doctor explained our problems and what we needed to do. We brought Josh and Brian in to see their baby sister because from what we were told, this might be the last time they would get to see her. Brian put his hand on the top of her little head and said, "Sissy you have to fight because when I got third degree burns I had to fight. So you have to fight, because we love you and have been waiting for you a long time." From the time Brian said this, Elyssa started doing better. I sent my boys to my brother's house while my husband and I stayed at the hospital. I was discharged on Thursday and soon after met Ginger, a Family Room staff member, who told me about the Ronald McDonald Family Room. I remembered thinking "what a great place for families" when I had first heard about the Family Room opening on the news but never dreamed we'd be in a situation to use it. 

The Ronald McDonald Family Room was the best place we could be during that hard time in our lives. We had a place to eat, shower and sleep. We bonded with the staff and other families and those bonds will last a lifetime. Thank you so much to the staff at the Ronald McDonald Family Room and the entire staff of the NICU and Labor and Delivery at St. Edward Mercy- and of course Dr. Riche'. We took Elyssa home 11 days later on February 18th, 2011 and she has been putting on weight steadily and is still doing great one month later!"

 
Love Always, 

Vera, Stuart, Josh, Brian and Elyssa

Ronald McDonald Care Mobile reaches the $1 Million mark!!

In Arkansas, there are two Ronald McDonald Care Mobiles- one is part of the RMHC of Arkoma Chapter and the other is part of the RMHC of Arkansas Chapter, both in partnership with Arkansas Children's Hospital.  Together, we have provided just over 1 million dollars of dental care to children in the state of Arkansas!  As of February 28, 2011 we have served 1,479 children and treated 3,366 cavities at a value of $1,008,671.00

Even more promising, 59% of the children had never seen a dentist before.

Do you know how great the need for dental care really is?

* More than 51 million hours of schooling are lost annually due to the lack of dental care among American Children

*Tooth decay is the most common chronic childhood disease today in the United States, five times more common than asthma.

*Each year, nearly 10 million children die worldwide, mostly from preventable and treatable causes.

The Ronald McDonald Family Room - An Arkansas Treasure

This month we are so honored to be featured as an Arkansas Treasure in Celebrate Arkansas Magazine.

In case you haven't seen it, click here to view the magazine online then turn to page 94-95 to read about the Ronald McDonald Family Room at St. Edward Mercy. 

A special thanks to Dick Trammel and Celebrate for publishing about RMHC!

Maggie's Story

"Our journey to Fort Smith, St. Edwards Mercy Center and the Ronald McDonald Family Room started on the evening of January 3rd.  I was beginning to make dinner and my husband Mike was on the couch when my cell phone rang.  A ringing cell phone doesn’t normally make the universe stop, but this one did.  We had been anxiously awaiting news on the impending birth of our soon to be adopted baby.  When our birthfather told me that they were inducing his wife, the still raw pork chops flew into the garbage and we both raced around the house in a panic, throwing clothes into suitcases, calling family and preparing the house for what we thought would be a week long absence.  I had no idea the journey we were about to take.
 
We rode through the darkness from our Chicago suburb towards Ft. Smith and had just passed the St. Louis Arch when the phone rang again “So, what is your daughter’s name?” our birthfather asked as the most beautiful sounding cry wailed in the background.  It was a girl!!  Wait, we thought it was going to be a boy!  You can’t call a girl Jack!  We tried to keep our cool as we debated girl names and wished the miles to go by faster.
 
As with most highly anticipated events in life, the story of our adoption of Maggie Grace did not go exactly as planned.  When we finally arrived at the hospital after an eleven hour drive, we had to wait another 2 hours to get into the NICU to see the baby.  But finally, there she was, sprawled out on her tummy, all plump and pink with a little bow in her hair.  She was beautiful and perfect and in a week she would be ours.  And then the doctor came over to review why she was in Intensive Care in the first place.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget looking out over Rogers Avenue as Dr. Seglem explained that while Maggie would be fine in the long run, it would be 3-6 weeks before she could go home.  My mind raced to figure out how this was going to work, we were a 1,000 miles from home, the only people we knew in Arkansas were inside the walls of this hospital, and the most important one was this beautiful, but helpless 8 pound being. It was quickly decided that Mike would fly home in a few days to go back to work and I would stay and be with Maggie.  But how would we pull this off…. logistically…. financially?
 
Enter the Ronald McDonald Family Room, just one floor above the NICU at St. Edwards.  Our Social Worker Cindy told us that we would qualify for a room and that there was an opening.  I thanked her and pretty quickly pushed it out of my mind, as I was still reeling from the news about Maggie.  It wasn’t until later when Amanda gave me a tour that I began to fully comprehend what this gift would mean to us.  Not only would I have a safe, clean and ultra hip place to stay (seriously, the Family Room looks to be straight out of an episode of HGTV’s Dream House) but I would also have access to a washer and dryer, a computer and meals.  Suddenly many of my worries slipped away and I was able to concentrate on what mattered most…that sweet baby. 
 
While all of the tangible things the Family Room offers are beyond wonderful, what might be most valuable are the relationships and support we received while Maggie recovered in the NICU.  Sitting around the dining room table we would chat with the other parents, recapping our babies progress, the frustrations and fears and the triumphs when we each reached the end of our stay.  We rooted on Bekah and Caleb and Coral and Xavier and Jayden as each made their milestones and went home and we are anxiously waiting to hear when Ella, Jaxie and Jackie are released!  Those connections became invaluable as the days crawled into weeks and our stamina faded. 
 
Today Maggie is doing great, she’s a thriving gorgeous baby and the joy of our lives.  It’s been wonderful to be home and to start our new lives as a family but we will never forget the staff, volunteers and sponsors who gave us the friendship, support, meals and comfy place to stay when we needed it the most. The staff at the Ronald McDonald Family Room including Ginger, Amanda, Julie, Jackie, Jenah, Crystal and Tammy became our family for that long month and they will always hold a special place in our hearts.  Thank you for taking such good care of us, so we could take care of Maggie."

-Margaret Pote, February 2011