McDonald's staff rewarded for charity work

Buy photos » Redditch franchisee Robert Holdcroft accepts the award from Kay Hodgetts, RMHC community fundraiser, watched by Steve Stone, people manager, shift manager Richard Cooke, store manager Liz French, shift manager Sharleen Jobson and area manager Steve Bennett. Picture by Ian Dipple.

STAFF at the town's McDonald's stores have been serving up stacks of cash to help support families with sick children.

The three Redditch restaurants have raised just under £12,000 in the last 18 months for the Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.

The house provides free accommodation and support to families with sick children being treated at the nearby Birmingham Children's Hospital and is one of 15 the charity runs across the country. The store in the Kingfisher Shopping Centre also came top out of 120 stores across the region which supports the house, raising over £5,190.

Kay Hodgetts, community fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Birmingham, visited the store on Monday (July 16) to present an award to staff marking their achievement.

"We wouldn't be able to survive without the support we receive from restaurants like these. They are always the first to volunteer for an event or offer their help out of all the other restaurants and their support is crucial to us," she said.

"It's inspiring to think most of the staff here are young people, who many would think are more interested in going out on the town, but instead they are giving up their time to help make a difference to other people's lives."

It costs on average £375 for a family to stay in the house for 15 days. Since opening in 2009 the house has provided accommodation for 3,300 families, 39 of which have been from Redditch who have stayed for a total of 584 days at a cost of £14,600. It means the fundraising efforts of staff from all three town stores have helped pay for the majority of the accommodation provided to Redditch families.

The money was raised through a series of fundraisers including quizzes, curry nights, bag packs and a gala dinner while franchisee Robert Holdcroft led a team up Snowdon and town centre store manager Liz French took part in the Great Midlands Fun Run. The vast majority of staff have also signed up to donating £1 from their pay every fortnight to the charity and have volunteered about 300 hours helping at the house, saving about £2,000 in labour costs.

Mr Holdcroft said: "It's always a proud moment to receive an award and be recognised but the key thing and the priority is to continue to raise money and support the house. A lot of people from Redditch have stayed at the house and as a group of restaurants we wanted to support a charity and when we asked everybody they all wanted to raise funds for it."

Regional news »