On December 23, 2018 several members volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto. The Ronald McDonald House is a part of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, a nonprofit organization whose programs help the families of children who are in the hospital. The Ronald McDonald House provides a place to stay for families with hospitalized children under the age of 18 at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital or Stanford Hospital and live far away from the hospitals. The House allows for families to be closer to their child while not having to deal with the stress of housing and groceries by providing rooms and services for the families to use.
Some of our members helped in the House’s megaBITES service, which provides free meals to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. We helped in preparing and serving the evening meal for the families, following the staff-provided meal instructions. This gave us an opportunity to give back to the community in a unique way as we were helping a part of the population that traditionally is not seen as needing aid.
After we had finished serving the food, we passed out some of our team pins to the families and informing them about the various programs FIRST offers. We hoped this helped raise interest for some in robotics and STEM in general, as well as get some interested in participating in a FIRST program.