On Tuesday, July 30th, the Atlanta and Houston Chapters worked together to have an Activity Night at the Ronald McDonald House and were able to host five girls and four boys! We were set up inside of Ronald McDonald’s Activity room next to their playroom that had all the games, board games, movies, and activities one could imagine. 

We set up each table with multiple activities for the kids! First, we had the Choose-Your-Own Makeup & nail polish. We laid out everything and had all the make-up choices readily available to all the children. All the girls immediately sat down and started grabbing at all the exotic colors that were available. One of the girls was fascinated by every single color, and she had to have all of them. She wanted everything to be a rainbow. From her nails all the way to the color your own bag. In the end, Maria, Morgan, and I found out, funny enough; her favorite color was black! Naturally, we included black into the rainbow on the bag, and it turned out perfect. She was proud of it, and you could see it in her eyes. I only wish I had more black markers for her to color!

Of course, with makeup and nail polish, they need the tiaras to top complete the look! The tiaras were placed upon the table along with all the capes and nail polish. That way, they could match their nail polish and makeup to the tiaras. 

Something stuck with me on leaving Ronald McDonald House, however. I was done and had just finished packing up. I came out and noticed a father with his infant daughter, who couldn’t have been older than a few months, so I tried to be as quiet as I possibly could. I found the night manager, and she came in to help me gain access to the elevator. As we were turning the corner she said hello, and the father had asked what was going on inside the Activity room, so I had begun to explain and told them next time to stop in! I started to unpack to get her a tiara and a princess bag, and I could see the emotion in his eyes. I found her the smallest size that I could find and gave it to him, and it was a perfect fit! It was the ideal way to end the night because I could feel the appreciation from them, and it was a way to make them happy too. As I was leaving, also, I could see all the children that had come to visit us with their capes and Tiaras in the playroom — living in a world filled with Royalty and Superheroes. For those couple of hours, they were able to have fun and forget about everything, and that is worth everything. 

Now, for those that wanted to become their favorite Superhero, we had an answer for this – superhero cape & masks! As soon as the boys and girls were allowed in, with their parent’s consent, they barreled through the door. They are sifting through all the different options for masks. Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man were the favorites. They put on their hero masks, grabbed the matching cape, and instantly became their hero. Of course, I showed them the respect a hero deserves! 

Lastly, the kids needed something to carry all of this treasure in! We laid out the color-your-own drawstring bags for them to create their masterpiece. We laid out the bags across all three tables that were in the Activity room. After everyone was sifting through the makeup, nail polish, stickers, capes, and superhero masks, they all went directly to the bags. One of the boys favorite color was Brown, and he made sure we knew it! I had to scramble to find him more brown fabric markers. His father and I laughed about that. He was incredibly proud of his bag, too, and that is all that matters.  One of the girls was done beautifying her drawstring tote and wanted another! We gave her a bag for her bag.

All the children loved the bag activity. They spent so much time perfecting their masterpieces, and took immense pride in them! 

A huge thank you to Ronald McDonald House for allowing us to have an Activity Night! Also, we would like to thank our volunteers for coming out and helping us for the night: Morgan Geurts, Maria Lu (Houston Chapter Director), James Cooke (Local Chapter Director).