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To have a child hospitalized is one of the most stressful things a parent can experience. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Charlotte makes such tough times easier, providing a home-away-from home for families that need to be there for their children who are sick or injured.

Morton & Gettys law firm is stepping up to help. As part of its M&G Gives program, the firm has contributed $1,000 to the nearby charity.

Morton & Gettys launched this program last year as a way of celebrating its 20th anniversary and saw it as so worthwhile that it continued into 2022. While Morton & Gettys gives to many other organizations, the idea in this program is to bring more attention to certain recipients that might benefit from greater exposure.

Pictured: Isobel DeRusha, Associate Director of Corporate Relations, Ashley Worrell and Melissa Cassell

RMHC of GC was nominated for the gift by Ashley Worrell, an attorney with Morton & Gettys. She learned what a godsend the organization was to other parents when her own newborn twins had to spend a few days in the NICU last year.

Fortunately, her children’s stay wasn’t as long as some parents experience, and her commute to the hospital not nearly as far. “Going to the NICU/PICU daily during that time, we saw so many children and parents who were not so fortunate.” She was deeply impressed by all that the charity does to “help families so they can focus on their children getting better and coming home.”

That’s when she started collecting pop tabs from aluminum cans to donate to RMHC of GC. “Though small, tabs are clean and easy to collect – and they add up fast,” says the organization’s website. “RMHC of GC takes tabs into local recycling centers and exchange the tabs for money for our guest family fund!”

Kristin Young, the organization’s marketing director, says the tabs are a more usable source of recycled aluminum than the rest of the can – and much easier to save and transport. The money the tabs bring in “goes directly to support nights for families here at the House, but mainly, collecting tabs helps us bring awareness to our programs helping children and their families for every tab pulled.”

The guests receive a night’s rest, a hot shower, a delicious meal – and the comforting attention of staff and volunteers. That all costs $142 per night per family, for all the expected costs of running the facility, such as keeping the lights on and the water running.

All that is provided free of charge to all families, although families are invited to make a small financial donation if they can afford it.

So the tabs help a lot. And the $1,000 gift from Morton & Gettys can keep a family at the House for a full week. It’s little wonder that Isobel DeRusha, the organization’s associate director of corporate relations, says “We are so excited and honored to be chosen for this program.”

Morton & Gettys urges everyone in the community to do what they can to help Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Charlotte keep fulfilling its mission of keeping families close. You can donate through the website, at https://www.rmhclt.org/donate.html

But that’s not all you can do. The organization needs and depends upon a small army of volunteers to get the job done – to help with day-to-day operations at the House, to visit children in the hospital, to help provide cookies and other snacks, and much more. Learn more about that here: https://www.rmhclt.org/volunteer.html

Now that M&G Gives had made its donation, Ashley Worrell plans to help another way. “We drink a lot of soda around here,” she says. She plans to put some bins to collect pop tabs around the law firm’s offices. “It’s an easy way to support an organization that really does a lot of good.”