April 14th, 2022
In 2016, we lost our daughter Alexis to Glioblastoma brain cancer at the age of 13. We stayed at The Ronald McDonald House® on and off for four years during Alexis’s treatment. The Ronald McDonald House was our saving grace during the most challenging time of our lives, and we would have never made it through those four long years of travelling back and forth, emergency hospital stays and radiation treatments if we did not have the House and the staff to relieve some of the stress that we carried with us.
My daughter Olivia and I began volunteering at RMHC® in 2017 (we did not need to think long and hard about which charity we would volunteer for) because The Ronald McDonald House had impacted our family and we knew that we wanted to give back in any way we could.
I can honestly say that the four years (and going for Olivia) that we volunteered together were more important to our healing than we could have ever imagined. We understood what the guest families were going through and wanted to do everything that we could to make their stay at RMHC pleasant. This incredible journey my family has been on is something you never prepare for, or think will happen to you, but when it does you are beyond grateful for places like RMHC that go above and beyond for families.
After volunteering for four years, I became a part-time Family Service Manager, and I was so thrilled that I would be able to impact the guest families even more. After a couple of months, I was given the opportunity to work full-time in that position, and I gladly accepted. You never know where your road may lead. “I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I ended up where I intended to be.”
I appreciate every one of the volunteers for their continued support of our staff, guest families, the House, our events, everything! We could not do what we do without all of you.
Thank you!
Heidi Soba
Family Services Manager
