Support the Ronald McDonald House of Eastern Wisconsin through my Eagle project!
My name is Joshua Parker. I have been a member of Boy Scout Troop 77 for five years. During this time, I have taken classes and worked with mentors to gain the knowledge, experience and leadership skills that helped me achieve the second highest Boy Scout rank, Life Scout. My goal is to achieve the highest rank, which is Eagle Scout. It has been a long road, and I have one last project before reaching my goal.
Completing an Eagle Project is the last requirement to gain the rank of Eagle Scout. The project is a way for the scout to show his leadership skills and confidence in all that he has learned. It has to be a project that will benefit a segment of the community. Completing it will show that the Life scout has the leadership and organizational skills required of an Eagle Scout. I have chosen the Ronald McDonald House of Eastern Wisconsin as the beneficiary of my Eagle Project.
The Ronald McDonald House (RMH) is connected (literally) to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. I chose RMH because my family has a personal connection with it. A little more than a year ago I was diagnosed with Leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood. As I was going through my first 8 months of treatment, I had a lot of overnight hospital stays at Children's in Milwaukee. In many other hospitals the only options for parents are to sleep on a small couch in the room, to go home for the night or to rent a hotel room. Lucky for us, we had help from the Ronald McDonald House.
What the RMH did for my family was amazing! They gave my parents a room to stay in whenever I was in the hospital. Not only that, but they gave my mom and dad free meals and access to a massive pantry and an amazing kitchen where they could cook just like they were at home. The hospital doesn't supply meals to parents, so having this source of food saved us a lot of money on eating out. The house has a clean and safe building, friendly volunteer staff, and lots of stuff to do for family members, big and small. Not only does RMH give families support every day, the staff and organization go out of their way to make holidays special, too. Over Christmas, my Mom and I had to stay at RMH. We couldn't believe it when we woke up Christmas morning to a big pile of gifts from Santa outside of our door. In fact, all of the families staying received a pile of gifts from Santa! This "little extra" meant a lot. The House has been a big relief for my family and RMH's support has helped me a lot on my path to recovery.
My Eagle Project is to organize and serve two meals to all the residents of the house. In addition, I will purchase and assemble an indoor play table with chairs for the House. All the money that I raise will go towards funding the donation of the meals and play tables. All together everything is going to cost a total of $3,000. Any extra money that I raise will be donated to the House.
Now that I have a way to help the Ronald McDonald House I am doing as much as I can. With your donation I will be able to give back to the charity that has helped my family and me out so immensly. Anything that you give will be greatly appreciated by families like mine that are going through the trials of having a child in the hospital for an extended period of time.
