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Tomko: Hearts Of Hope Raises $250,000 For Ronald McDonald House
12/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
DURHAM, N.C. ? The Duke women's lacrosse team has paired themselves with the Ronald McDonald House through a new campaign called Hearts of Hope in an effort to raise money for a new Ronald McDonald House in Durham.
“We wanted to kind of latch on to a charity or an organization that made sense for us,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “I think the role that Duke University serves in the greater South East with regards to its children's hospital and with Josh [Hexter] and I both having children, from a hands on standpoint I have had a chance to meet a lot of people who needed the Ronald McDonald House and I was with them every day.”
Since Kimel has served as a co-chair, along with men's coach John Danowski, for the past year, the Hearts of Hope campaign has raised around $250,000, but the head coach, who has been the cornerstone of Duke lacrosse for the past 12 seasons, isn't settling as she works to build even more community support for the campaign.
“I think for our kids, being part of helping to build the new house is part of their legacy that I want them to leave,” Kimel said. “Not just that they have left a legacy on the field, but a more important one that is a brick and mortar type of legacy. When they come back to Duke down the road with their own families they can say, ?I really had something to do with building that new home'.”
The minimum donation for the campaign is $1,000 with roughly 250 people supporting the efforts of the Ronald McDonald House. Five individual organizations have already donated $25,000 and above to the cause.
The Ronald McDonald House and Family Room of Durham provides a home away from home for seriously ill children and their families receiving treatment at Duke Children's Hospital and other medical centers in the Triangle.
The House has been providing help to families since 1980 and in 2007 alone the Ronald McDonald House opened its doors to 775 families who needed a place to stay and over 100,000 who used the Family Room at Duke Children's Hospital.
Kimel was involved in brainstorming sessions a year ago to try and figure out the best organization for her team to pair with.
“I think when it came time to try and find a place that we could kind of latch onto the Ronald McDonald House just made sense to us,” Kimel said.
The women's lacrosse team has personally been involved with the Ronald McDonald House for the past few years, cooking meals for the families at the house.
“I think the thing for our kids, which I always try to tell them, the most important mission that we have with Ronald McDonald house is to help serve the families who are going through a hard time," Kimel said. "I think when you talk to the families they just love to talk about something other than their child's condition. They like to hear about practice, they like to hear about school, something else.”
The women's team was under the gun a few weeks ago when they prepared a full Mexican dinner for the families, having less than two hours to prepare the entire meal.
The women's team takes pride in making some great meals for the families as well as building relationships with people in the community. It also builds teamwork for the girls because they need to communicate and work together to create a savory and nutritious meal.
“But I think what is really great for them is it gives them perspective,” Kimel said “I think it is easy for our kids to get very caught up in the craziness of their academic and athletic schedules.”
To see the women's lacrosse team cooking at the Ronald McDonald House click on the video link under the Multimedia tab to the right.
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