Episode 53 : Matt Campo and Jordan Ziegler

[BELL RINGING] Welcome to another episode of "Alpatrou" with the Southern County PBA. I'm CJ Hunder, the treasure of the PBA. I'm Tana Brenner, the Sergeant of the PBA. And today we're excited to have a couple of very interesting guests. One is Matt Campo, he's the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Metro New York area. And we have a returning guest, Jordan Ziegler. Jordan's been on in the past to talk about his law firm. But Jordan's also a board member of Ronald McDonald House Charities, so we're excited to have you back on. Thank you, CJ. Thank you for having us. We appreciate you getting in here. We really did. Yeah, so just for everybody out there watching, Matt, why don't you tell us a little bit about Ronald McDonald House Charities and what you do on the day today. Sure, sure. So we have a very simple mission at the Ronald McDonald House. We want to do all that we can for children and families in the midst of a pediatric medical crisis so that the family can focus on what's most important, which is the health and well-being of their child. So we do that through various programs that we have. We have a 42-bedroom facility in New Hyde Park next to Cohen Children's Medical Center. We have two family rooms at Stony Brook Children's Hospital. And we are building a 30-bedroom facility, $34 million campaign to build a Ronald McDonald House at Stony Brook City. Organization is growing. We're meeting the needs of families in NASA and South of County in the five boroughs of New York City and we're meeting the needs of families from around the world as they come here from medical care in the New York metropolitan area. I think stressing that family aspect and taking care of the family is not just the patient. It is an important thing to kind of focus on because I'm a parent and every parent's worst nightmare is something happening to one of their children, right? Whether you're going through a significant illness, significant injury, and as a parent, you want to be there with your child as much as possible and being involved with a Ronald McDonald House next to wherever they're getting their treatment allows for that possibility to happen. CJ, it's really, it's the magic of our program. Not only do we want to do everything that we can for families going through a medical crisis, but the magic of a program is that these families are staying together. They're coming together in a communal living environment and they're leading on each other for support, which is something that's really important as well. - So tell us a little bit about how you got involved with Ronald McDonald House. - Sure. - But did you always want to be involved in charity type of work or did it kind of just happen as you were in some other business sector? Like how did this whole play out? - No, I had been a frontline fundraiser for the last 20 years here on the island. I've worked for various organizations in a fundraiser capacity bringing the money together with the resources that organizations need to run. We have a saying at the Ronald McDonald House, no money, no mission. We can't do what we do without the support of the community. We are fully supported by philanthropy on the island and in the five rows of New York City and the New York Metro area. So it's really a community effort. We don't do it alone. The community comes out to support us every day and it's something that we really appreciate. - That's awesome to hear. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's great when things kind of organically come together too. So like, we've known Jordan for years and Jordan's been on the board for, I think, I think, off air, you told me 12 years. You've been on the board? - Ronald McDonald House board, yes. - Yeah, okay. And, you know, Jordan knew that the new project in Stony Brook was gonna begin and he came right to us saying, you know, the PPA loves getting involved with community events. We love doing whatever we can to serve our communities. It's not just, you know, our members where the police officers not that fighting crime and saving lives, but we as the union try to do what we can to support our communities as well. So when the opportunity arose to get involved in the new Stony Brook location, Jordan, you, I mean, you came right to us and said, you know, is this something that's in your wheelhouse? - Yeah, it was a natural selection sort of, 'cause I'm on the board, I'm the vice chair of the Ronald McDonald House. And as the project was moving on and where, as you said, no money, no mission, I was thinking about who would be interested in being involved in the new house. But it was almost less about the money and more about the community and the work that the PBA does jumped into my mind is how would the PBA feel if they missed the opportunity? To at least put a foot in the door at the Ronald McDonald House in Stony Brook. And when we did the tour of the house in New Hyde Park, it has that effect that it had on me when I was asked to come on the board. And I think it had the effect on you guys right away. This is something you want to be involved with. So it was easy. - Yeah, I would say within 30 seconds of walking in the door. I knew this was something that was worthwhile to be a part of. And you guys did a great job showing us around here because I mean, throughout the whole tour, your heart just melts, right? And you want to do everything you can to help these families that are in the situations that put them in this need for Ronald McDonald House. So it was great to be able to go on that tour with you guys. And I think one of the best ways to describe it, Jordan, these were your words, what you described to me. It's the happiest sand place on earth, something like that. - Well, it's a play. I always, I use what's the phrase, I use something about it. You don't want to be there. - Right. - But if you need it, you're glad it's there. So I use it as a safety net analogy with police and with lawyers. You as legal service provider for the PBA, you don't want to have to call me as a PBA member because if you're calling me, that means something is off or something is wrong, but I'm there as a safety net. As a civilian, I don't want to have to call the police because that means something is off and something is wrong. But I'm glad you're there. Same thing with Ronald McDonald House. You don't want to have to spend a week or two or three or four longer at the Ronald McDonald House because you want to stay there. Even though it's when you stay there, it's unbelievable the services that they provide to the families, but you're glad it's there in those moments where you're at your lowest with your family, with your child that it's a happy place because of the way they run it and the way the mission is, but you don't want to have to use it. But once you're using it, there's nothing like it for the families and for the children. - Yeah, so when we did the tour, you're showing us that, there's like a sports themed room where if a family has kids that are into athletics, they can hang out, watch some sports in the sports theme room, there was like a video game playing area. It's all these things that could give these families a little sense of normalcy when they're going through a difficult time. - And normalcy is really the best for it to describe it. Sometimes at the moment with Donald House, what we're doing is providing that normalcy, but also really giving people an excuse to sort of check out of what's happening at the children's hospital and maybe just forget about what's going on there for a while. So so many of our programs like Pet Therapy and Dance Troops that we bring in and music troops that we bring in for entertainment's sake are really for that normalcy and for the chance to just step out of that clinical environment and be in a home-like setting. So we can stress free for a little while. - Yeah, sure. - For a second. - Now at the New Hyde Park location, approximately how many families can you house there at a time? 'Cause I know it's right next door to the hospital. So while a child's going through their treatment at the hospital, the family could stay right next door instead of paying hotel room fees of 309 for a three-week schedule. - Sure, yeah, we can house 42 families at one time. I checked in with the house this morning. We have 41 families staying with us tonight. - Wow, that's great. - That's great. You're using the space of our house. - It's full, we are full. We always like to say, you know, it's like Jordan was saying, you don't want to be full. We should put ourselves out of business guys. You know, just really just one of those things that I mean that there's no sick kids in the hospital but when they need us we're there. - Yeah, then when the needs there, the opportunity is there for the families. - That's a huge facility. 41 rooms, 42. - 42. - And that's a lot of families there. That's a lot of people. - Yes, yes. - And what I found impressive too is it's called the New York Metro House but when I was looking at where the families were from 'cause it was like a display board. Right, they were families from Europe. They were families from elsewhere in the country. - Sure. - 'Cause I guess they sometimes you have to go to where the treatment is, right? - Correct, yeah. And that's really the premise of the Royal Retail will have system as a whole. And when families have to, especially when families have to travel for medical care, you know, we wanna be there for them and their darkest hour. So about 15% of families that stay at the Ronald McDonald House here on the island is their international in scope. - How many Ronald McDonald House locations are there? - Yeah, there's 392 globally. - Wow. - So yeah. - And now we're starting the one in Stony Brook, right? 'Cause so you previously had, what was it? Like a room or a floor in Stony Brook House? - We have two family rooms. That's basically what the Ronald McDonald House does inside of the children's house, but also think meals, think a place to step outside of the clinical environment, home-like environment. Families can take a shower, they can do laundry. You know, it's just bringing some of the amenities of home into the house, but they're not large spaces. They're about 1,000 square feet each, but it's not about the size of the space. It's really about the program and the program running inside the hospital. We also have two hospitality cards, one in Stony Brook and one in Co and the Children's Medical Center. Those are big sort of cards that we push through the hallways of the Children's Hospital to meet families bedside, offer them a cup of coffee, let them know that there's a room. on a McDonald House next door that can meet their needs. So the hospitality carts are also another way of reaching out to families. - Oh, that's great. See, I didn't even think of that prior to you bringing it up, but there could be people in the hospital right next door that don't even know about the opportunities there. - Sure, sure, so you have that outreach capability to, yeah, I don't wanna say recruit, but offer the services to the people that might be in need. - Sure, sure. - Yeah, that's great. So one of the things that I found interesting too is when we went for the tour of Ronald McDonald House charities, I kind of always thought of it as a McDonald's charity, right? The McDonald's restaurant's the first food, but there's actually a bit of a separation there and you described it to me that day, why don't you just let everybody know? Like, how do you make the main come about and what is the actual relationship? - Yeah, you know, our relationship with McDonald's is very important to the charity. Obviously they are our founding mission partner. When the first house was built in Philadelphia in the early 70s, part of the funding that helped build that house was from Ray Crock, who was the owner of McDonald's at the time. And the story goes that a guy by the name of Fred Hill who was on the Philadelphia Eagles had a sick daughter in the hospital and went to the children's hospital and said, what is it that you need? And they said, you know, we really need a place where families from out of town can stay and be comfortable and being near their children, their parents are sleeping in the hallways at the children's hospital. There's no place for them to go. So Ray Crock, the founder of McDonald's says you can have as much money as you need to build this house and to build this system just call it the Ronald McDonald House. So, you know, there's no one company or one corporation that could support 392 organizations globally. But what they do do is they license all of them with Ronald McDonald's houses. They provide support at the global level. There's an office in Chicago at McDonald's headquarters and that office, those 50 people that are helping all of the Ronald McDonald's houses in the world are McDonald's employees. So, one way that the McDonald's gives back to the system. - That's very interesting story. - And then there's obviously the McDonald's facilitated giving this roundup in the restaurants. There's donation boxes. There's other ways that McDonald's helps support the organization through. That's your money going into those casters and into roundup. But it's one way that they also help us. - Yeah, so I've seen those donation boxes. But I think I remember being told that there was something with the happy meals too. Isn't there like some sort of roundup or something with that happy meals? - Yes, so our relationship with McDonald's is really on the local level. The owner of Raiders that are here in the New York Metro area really are involved in the houses in our region. So, for example, one owner operator is the chairman of our board. She owns 27 restaurants here in Suffolk, - Wow. - So that the relationship is really at that local level. And the owner of Raiders do certain things for us that also help. So, for example, for every happy meal that they sell in the New York Metro area, we get a penny. For every pound of fries, we get a penny. - So, those pennies add up to $1,000. - And the dollar says $1,000. So, that relationship is just so important. - It's great to hear the individual owners because McDonald's is a franchise. Anyway, you can go and buy McDonald's now, build a McDonald's. It's good to hear that those people that are in business trying to make money are supportive of a foundation like this. - Sure. - And see the value in helping their communities that they're doing the business in. - Yes, it's really, we are their names, say charity. They really do all that they can for us. As I said, they take seats on our board. They come to our events. They help promote the house and help support us in just so many ways. So we're so grateful to them. - Yeah, that's awesome. I obviously, I feel like I'm getting an education here because I didn't know all this stuff. I always thought that McDonald's ran the wrong McDonald's house. So I don't even know that part. And I think just your guys ability to bring the community in, everybody's just so, if you're so invested in the houses. - I always tell everyone there's something for everyone to pitch in with at the Ronald McDonald's house. We have over 15,000 volunteers a year coming through the building. - And the whole staff is volunteers. - Most of the staff is volunteers. We run a very lean, lean staff. Our volunteers are unbelievable. They man our family rooms, they man reception, they're doing everything from letter writing to helping us clean rooms, to driving our vans when families need transportation or picked up from the airport or things like that. So all of our programs are run by volunteers. And we call them the heartbeat of the house because they really are so important to us. - How many of those volunteers are from families that use the services prior? - Oh, sure, yeah. We do have families that come back after they've stayed at the Ronald McDonald's house and they fundraise for us. They do wishlist drives for us. We have a wish list on our website where you can figure out the top things that we need donations and kind donations for. But yes, families do come back and help support us. And that's important too. - So we had recently seen a tribute video that you guys had email to us. And it was a handful of families thanking Ronald McDonald's house for the services they provide, the opportunities that were given to these families to stay together. - The Ronald McDonald's house just supported our family so much and just became a home away from home when we were here. - Great place for the kids. We have four kids in total. For the three other kids come to my wife without being too far from Jack, which was important. It was a huge benefit to be right next door. We had breakfast in the morning. It took care of basically anything that we could have needed. It helped us be with him much longer. - With it weren't for the Ronald McDonald's house, we wouldn't have that opportunity. - The reason why we travel over to America every year for the last 17 years is because of the Ronald McDonald's house. The therapy that Grace gets lasts three weeks. It's a long time to be away from home. A long time to be out of your own environment. And the Ronald McDonald house here in New York has just been absolutely fantastic for her. And for us, like over somewhere that we can come back to after every day where she can sit down and relax. She could recoup herself. - With the Ronald McDonald's house, it was very good to know that while I was taking care of our other son, Trace was able to get whatever she needed, shower, hot food, clean clothes, whatever she needed, she was in bed. - A hug. - A hug? Yeah, in the times I wasn't there. And for that, we'll always be eternally grateful. When you're going through something like that, you kind of go into autopilot. So you don't think about when you eat and when you shower to when you're taking care of yourself. I say it all the time, I do not think I would have been able to get through it the way that I did if it wasn't for that support. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you, Ronald McDonald's house for keeping our families close. - And again, me as a father trying to think of what would be most important to me. If my family was going through one of these situations, time together would be of the biggest value. And I seem to notice that as the theme in the video too, being able to be so close to where your child is getting the treatment, it allows for that added time together. - Yes, the premise is we want to keep families together when they're going through a medical crisis. We have a saying again at the Ronald McDonald's house that a sick child means a sick family. And what do you want most when you are a sick child, you want your mom, you want your dad, you want your siblings, your grandma, your grandpa and your dad. So that's really at the premise of all of it, we believe that kids heal faster because they have that family connection and they have that family with them. - Oh, I believe that 100%. Because when you have that support around you and that love around you, that is definitely a healing factor. - Is there a story maybe that you can give us and that you give us the original story? Is there a story of one of the kids calling back or a story that really touched you as you-- - You know, when you ask that question, it makes me think of them at bride family. They are a truly resilient family. They unfortunately lost their daughter to leukemia when she was 11 years old. But what they have done is turned that tragedy into triumph. They fundraise for us every year. They've come back to the house. They've said, "Listen, this is the place where we want to invest our time, our treasure, our talents." And they have reached out to the community with their story and created such a meaningful impact for the Ronald McDonald House. We have the Cain and McBride Fitness Center at the Ronald McDonald House that we named in honor of the McBrides. Just because of what they've done with such a tragedy, they've really turned it into something amazing, something that the community comes out to support every single day. - That's remarkable 'cause I would think that after losing my child that brought me the last place I want to go back to is sure. - Sure, sure. - And it really speaks to what Jordan was saying earlier. It is a happy place. We leave all of the clinical things to the hospital. So the beefing machines and the shots and all that. chemotherapy and all those things that kids unfortunately have to endure the children's hospital. They come and store to the Ronald McDonald House and they come alive. They're so resilient. So there you might see a mask. You might see kids with that their hair, but they're having the time of their life at the Ronald McDonald House with everything that we have to to plug them into. So, tanning here from Ambitral with some PBA. Just a reminder to all our viewers to like, subscribe, follow and share our content across all platforms. Yeah, it is incredible because like Tanner said, families could react differently after the loss. So it is nice to hear that some people turn such a tragedy into some level of purpose to help other people out there that might be going through the same thing that they've already gone through. And we talk about mental health all the time very often part of coping with your own mental health is to help other people that are similarly situated. Sure, sure. I think that that really is one of the main goals of what it is that we do every day is helping people move through the crisis that they're in and doing it with compassion, doing it with care and doing it with love. Yeah, that's incredible. So at the New Hyde Park House you're always close to capacity. What led to looking to do a full house over in Stony Brook rather than just having the hospitality rooms and floor? You know, was it just the sheer need to house more families? It was a geographical thing. It really is the sheer need. You know, we have a thought we have served about a thousand families a year at our house in New Hyde Park. That's 42 bedrooms. That's 50,000 square feet. We're serving 4,500 families a year and our two family rooms at Stony Brook Children's Hospital. So just the geography of Suffolk County is certainly a little bit different than the New Hyde Park House. Less access to transportation. Less access to meals while families are in the hospital. So that's part of our work I think is recognizing that there really is a tremendous need in Suffolk County and this is Suffolk County's house. It's going to be the first house and only house in Suffolk County and we're going to build it already on our way. Yeah, that's great. Now the New Hyde Park House is what we say 30,000 square feet? 50,000 square feet. Yeah. How big is the Stony Brook House going to be? That's going to be 60,000 square feet. Wow, you know, big, dirty bedrooms. Yeah. Wow. I think what we've done is we've taken what we've learned running around at McTottland House, the New Hyde Park for 40 years now and really instilled all of what we've learned into the new house. So the rooms are bigger, the common spaces are bigger. We find out from families they not only want a room, but they want a room sort of with the bathroom in the middle so you can have a living room on one side and sort of a bedroom on the other side. So again, we've just been doing this for 40 years and have really learned what it takes to make families comfortable in this situation. Right. Continuing to learn and evolve, what best suits the families of today. Right? Sure. Because what might have been the best practice 30, 40 years ago, families might look for something different now today. Yes, that's true. Right? I mean, 40 years ago, they probably wasn't a need for a video game room, but now you have a gaming room, which is right. That's right. Right. So with some of the amenities at the New Hyde Park House, is Stony Brook going to have all the same amenities? I know there was like a square outside at New Hyde Park where families could go outside, get some fresh air. Sure. Sure. We will have all those amenities at the Stony Brook location. Yeah. We'll have outdoor place spaces for kids, places where families and the dinner program can cook outdoors. We'll have a transportation program to bring families to and from medical appointments or whether they need to pick up a prescription at the drug store. We have a hospitality program where we send our volunteers into the children's hospital to talk with our families and say, "Hey, what is it that you might need?" And they bring that information back to the house and we're able to everything from give them extra towels in their room to perhaps maybe helping them with some laundry because they haven't had a chance to do it yet. So all of our programs are pet therapy. We bring in entertainment and other things like that. So I'll send you to around that one main goal, just giving families that sense of normalcy. You set up like the pet therapy or an event you're doing there. You set it up on an other day, like on a Saturday. Seven days a week we have pet therapy. We have therapy dogs come in to provide some healing for the kids. They love it. They absolutely eat it up. So it's great. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Now with the location being, it's going to be like right across the street from the hospital, right? It's going to be on campus, across street from the hospital. On campus, yeah, right across the street. There's a bus stop on the road there. So families can walk across the street or take the bus to the children's hospital. It's probably going to be about a 10-minute walk to the children's hospital from where the new house is being built. So we're excited about that proximity because we want to, again, you want to keep families together and give them as close to the children's hospital as possible. Right, right. And it's great to be able to have that shuttle service, but it's also nice to be able to just be a 10-minute walk away because sometimes that fresh air, that little bit of physical activity when you're walking towards the hospital or towards the house, it's probably good for your mental health too. Get that fresh air and move your body around yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And we are happy that we're that close. So that has there been any, and we'll talk about our partnerships soon and what we're going to do there. But has anything come from, like, say, the student body since you're going to be on a university campus? Sure. I mean, right now we see many students volunteer for Ronald McDonald's. I love here that I love here in the younger generation getting involved with the board. There's quite a few kids on campus that come to take a shift at the family room. We anticipate that there will be parts of the student body that also come to volunteer at the house when it's built. So, you know, it's an exciting partnership with the hospital, but it's also an exciting partnership with the university as well. Yeah, that's great. We always talk about including our younger cops and the stuff we do within the union. So you kind of, you know, you want people involved. And when it comes to this sort of project, it's great to see the student body that younger generation involved with something that's going on, you know, right on campus with them, right? It could be your core street from their dorm room. Sure, sure. So it's great to see their involvement and then wanting to be doing it. That's part of the hardest part too, is getting the volunteers. I mean, I would think, I mean, I'm sure people want a volunteer because it's the right thing to do and to be involved in the organization, but oftentimes it's hard to get people to volunteer if they're time to do anything. Sure, sure. So, you know, we have a lot of grassroots efforts in Suffolk County to not only go under the financial support we need to build the house, but also to go out into the community and ask for help with volunteers. So a lot of the service clubs in Suffolk County, I think the Lions Clubs, the Rotary Clubs, they're all sort of mobilizing and getting ready for when the house is built to come and help us with volunteers. But then you, if I, on the volunteer aspect, you don't have to only correct me if I'm wrong always. No, you don't always have to be a formal volunteer for a period of time. So my two boys during high school, we volunteered to bake at the house one night, to cook a meal at the house one night. So that's still volunteering. So you can volunteer now. And I think this sometimes is a wait list even to get into the kitchen to serve and cook the meals for the families. And then you leave before the families come. So it's really nice. But so it's an ongoing volunteer, the formal volunteers that are always there. Sure, sure. But you have the daily in and out to cook the meals and to help around the place. So that's great. So that, I get my role sort of sitting here, oh, listening, this is so great. But I personally fulfilling the dual role I'm serving sort of as a PBA legal service attorney who takes calls for free advice, free calls on various different things and a board member for the Ronald McDonald House. So I can help facilitate putting people together. So if you have, if a PBA member has a child or somebody that wants to volunteer and cook a meal or bake, and they don't have to get in touch with the Ronald McDonald House directly, they can call the number that's in the benefit fund for me. And I can help put them together. So that would be great. So I'm glad you brought up the cooking aspects and being in the kitchen, because the kitchen in the new high parkhouse is huge, it's gorgeous. And that's part of the area where we're going to be sponsoring in the the new Stony Brookhouse. But, you know, for me, I feel like the dinner table, you know, around meals, that's when families spend a lot of time together, right? Do you see in the Ronald McDonald houses that families are hanging out and having meals in those common areas to some families to take them back to their private rooms? Do you see mingling of the families in these common areas? Sure, sure. Yeah, the kitchen is the center of a lot. It's one of the busiest places at Ronald McDonald House. We provide at least one meal for our families every day, although oftentimes it's two, sometimes it's even three meals a day. We promise our families that they'll have a home quick meal waiting for them when they come back from the the Children's Hospital. What families do is they come back, they serve themselves a meal, they sit down with other families. There's stories you guys about, families coming to the Ronald McDonald House and forging lifelong friendships. They see stories about family scheduling, their child's surgery at the same time so that they can be there together and lean on each other for support. So the kitchen is really important and just a focal point of everything that we're doing. Lots of food moves through the building. Oh, sure. It's big. Whether it's cooking, there's just lots that move through. And that's part of what we provide. We provide the comfort of meals, right? You know, breaking bread. Oh, totally. It's what families do to get through it. So. I find it interesting that some families will even schedule their surgeries and treatments along the side of each other's schedules because they become each other's comfort zone. Sure, right? Sure. Yeah. I guess that lifelong friendships are forged at the Ronald McDonald House. Yeah, that's incredible to me. So part of our involvement at the Sony Brook House is going to be the Grab and Go station, right? So it's going to be a snack area where families can, you know, grab a quick sandwich, maybe grab a gatorade and then walk over to the hospital so they could be with their loved one right away. You know, quick and easy movement to help them through this. Yes. We are tremendously grateful to the Suffolk County PBA for sponsoring that area of the kitchen. It is one of the busiest spots. If families don't have time to sit down for a full meal, there's a place where they can just grab something quick to bring back over to the hospital. So again, it's all volunteer driven, whether it's our meals or whether it's our Grab and Go sort of area, volunteers are coming in to make sandwiches to put in the Grab and Go containers and parfaits and other juice boxes, anything else that you can think of that we just stocked full and families can come. So we're grateful to put your name on that space because it's going to be one of the busiest areas in the house. Yeah, we're excited to be a part of it. When the team kind of came to me with the concept, I thought it was a great idea and we jumped all over it. And I see the value in the food service part, right? Because everybody needs to eat at some point. That's where you can talk to each other, lean on each other. It could become therapeutic for those families going through the same situations together. So that's why we also volunteered to do an annual barbecue at the house, too. Every summer, we're going to go there with our police association food truck and we're going to barbecue for all the families and staff there. It's great. That's great. It's just so appreciated that you guys have gone so deep with us and you're really just giving us time, you're giving us treasure, you're giving us talent. It's something that we're just so grateful for. So thank you. Yeah, we're excited to be able to be a part of the Ronald McDonald House and service our community and a whole other aspect that we haven't done before. Because we've done toy drives at Christmas time. We've done food drives around Thanksgiving. We do a lot of stuff to give back to the community, but within, say, the health services side of things, we haven't necessarily been involved too much in the past. So we're excited to kind of open up this new door and we're thankful to you guys for giving us the opportunity to be part of this new project. It's really an amazing partnership that we are really grateful for as well. Well, I'll be a part of it. Well, the PBA's involvement helps drive poem the point, I think, that McDonald's corporation, which was the founding of the mission, they don't support 100% that they don't run the houses. So they don't run, no corporation, as you said, could do it all over the world. So it needs and requires fundraising from outside sources all the time to keep these houses moving. So without the PBA's assistance in this, these things can't happen at all. And some other misconception, sometimes, people think you have to pay the McDonald's, Ronald McDonald's house to stay at the Ronald McDonald's, the families, but the families don't pay at all out of pocket to be a resident at the house. So since they're not paying, someone has to support it. It's not 100% by McDonald's corporation. It's, I don't know what the percentage is, but I think it's more from private fundraising and the local McDonald's and corporate. So you really need these volunteers, you really need the fundraising. And that's why I think the families that have stayed there, I don't think there's a conversation I have as a board member, whether wherever I am having lunch, just here in the PBA building today. Yes. You mentioned Ronald McDonald's house. Someone has either known somebody or has been there and used it and always raves about how it saved their lives, and how they want to give back to it. It's an easy charity to give back to, when you use it, you said it was very sad you don't want to go back to someplace with bad memories, but it's always good memories. Everybody has positive things and wants to go back and give back. But yeah, I'm glad you bring that up because, you know, I didn't personally know much about Ronald McDonald's house charity, something told about a year ago. And now that we've, I've started to learn more about it and now we have an involvement in it, more and more I hear stories from our members, our friends, about how Ronald McDonald's house helped them and did help their family in the past. And maybe it's something that people don't necessarily want to talk about all the time, but when they find out you're involved, now all of a sudden I hear these great stories all the time. You had opened up to me, all of camera, about your history with the Ronald McDonald house and your feelings of it. So if you don't mind, just tell us a little bit about your experience with Ronald McDonald's house charities. So when my daughter was three months old, she ended up getting RSV and it was very bad. So we ended up in the Stony Brook Hospital pick you for 10 days I lived there. And I didn't leave, I refused to leave because, you know, she was so tiny. And Ronald McDonald's house had a, I don't remember if it was a room, it wasn't that big, but it was an area for the parents of children who were there. And when I was there for the first day, two days, they told me, oh, listen, this is available for you, the Ronald McDonald's house. So I finally pulled myself away from my daughter and I went to this area, the Ronald McDonald's house. And it was truly amazing. It was, they offered up, the people working there were some of the most kind, disemphathetic pitil you've ever met. And then they had showers, they had snacks, they had like some creature comforts because I refused to leave the hospital. And I was able to go there, I was able to shower, I was able to take the 10 minutes to just honestly cry and worry about what the heck was gonna happen and go back downstairs to my daughter, who had an IV in her head, she was hooked up to a machine, she was so tiny, she was like horrific. But this place has, and my memory is terrible. So it's kind of funny, but this Ronald McDonald's house is set so clear in my mind what they did for me. It was amazing, it was truly the best thing ever. And it was just small creature comforts that they offered, but they were so empathetic, so kind, it was wonderful. - It's been amazing how some of those small little comforts like having the ability to shower, having the ability to just cry by yourself for 10 minutes, right, decompress a little bit. It's amazing how valuable those sorts of little possibilities are and it's great to be able to have an organization like Ronald McDonald's house charities that can make a place like that possible for family going through a very difficult time. - Oh yeah, and it was amazing 'cause I'm not, you think Ronald McDonald's house, you think unfortunately kids were really sick. And the fact that they offered this to me, my daughter was sick, she was very sick, but I was a short-term patient, I was short-term, I had a light at the end of the tunnel I could see and they were like, no, you're still struggling. Please come up here and use this. And like I said, I was in that room with her and you're advocating for your child because unfortunately the staff has a lot. They have a lot to do, a lot going on, a lot of sick kids. So I had to be strong enough to advocate for my child. I had three other kids at home at the time too, so it was just me most of the time. And for them to give me that place to go, the person to talk to too, the people they were amazing, to talk to and work through my own feelings and take my shower, have my little granola bar and cup of coffee and head back down was the break I needed. - You know what I found amazing about it too, is the vast majority of their staff is 100% volunteer basis, they don't get paid a dime. You know, there are some paid positions throughout the organization just to keep it running appropriately and so people could put all their time and effort towards it, but the vast majority of the people that you're actually interacting with there are volunteers just doing it out of the goodness of their heart. - It makes it even more special. I didn't realize that at the time, you know, at the time you don't interact the way you should and asking the questions about the humans you're talking to. But I got to meet the two gentlemen yesterday and that's what they had said to us that it was volunteers and that just made it even hit home harder like that these people were so caring and so empathetic to everything and they just do it out of the goodness of their heart. all. - Awesome. - Yeah, one of the other things I really like about is you had mentioned your daughter was sick, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel, right? There are some families out there who are dealing with situations where they're likely fatal or critical situations, right? But you weren't pushed away, you were brought right in, right? Even though you're not dealing with something that might be that worst case possible scenario, they still saw a family going through a difficult time and they wanted to do whatever they could to help your family get through that time. - Yeah, it was huge. I remember them coming in and saying, "Oh, this is available for you." The first few days was touch and go. I didn't know what was gonna happen, but then she got stable and it was just a monitoring, keeping her's or saturation where it needed to be and they still came in and I remember saying, that's not for me, you know? That's for other people who deserve it, who need it more than I do. And they were like, "Have you looked around, you need it. This is for you, you need to take care of you 'cause how are you taking care of this small little human if you're not caring for yourself?" And they pushed me into it, you know? - 10 days is like an eternity. I'm sure that's happening. - Yeah, oh yeah, it was a lot. It was, she had like an IV in her head, it was bad. I was yelling at people, not the first in the outing, but you know. - You don't yell at people. - You know, I was yelling at people and they were like, they were forceful in making sure I took care of myself, which was amazing, you know? - Well, that's amazing. And Vicki, thank you for coming on and sharing your story about Ronald McDonald's house charities 'cause I think it's important for people to see some of those real life examples. - Yes, thank you. - Yeah, yeah, we love, we love when families come back and tell their stories. - Yeah. - It's one of the ways we have a special spot at the Ronald McDonald House. It's called the Heart to Heart studio and it's a place where families can sit down and answer a question of the week or a question of the day and it's recorded. We have a whole camera setup and things like that. And it just gives families an outlet to tell their stories and it's great for us because we can capture those moments. We can push them out on social media with their permission and we can really hear from families directly. I'm looking forward to going on. There have been the Ronald McDonald's. So I'm looking forward to going. We have our barbecue. And really this whole mission, it really transcends what you guys are doing. I think it affects so many different people, not even just the kids. I think on the social aspect of it as well, it's probably very important for those families to be sitting down with families going through the same thing and their kids socializing and becoming friends and then having people come back and tell their stories. - Sure. Well, you have an open invitation to come and visit us. - Yeah. - So long with anybody else that would like to come and visit us. I think awareness is so important for us. Many people have heard of Ronald McDonald House. Not everyone knows that there's houses right here on the land and the agricultural area serving families. So we love visitors. We love giving tours of our facility. So for anybody out there that wants to come and see what it is that we do, we'd love to show you. - Take it up on that open. It reached out to Jordan. - So for people out there in the general public that wouldn't want it to or wouldn't want to get involved somehow, is there a website, is there a phone number? How would they reach out to create that opportunity? - So it's rnhcnym.org. And there's really everything about us. We used to get involved. We used to help fundraise, we used to come and cook or bake or volunteer. It really is all there on our website. It's rnhcnym.org. - That's right. It makes it easy for everybody to get involved who wants to. - And the first, for Suffolk PBA members also, if you use me as a facilitator, if you're shy about going on or contacting around the dental house directly, just reach out to me through the PBA and I can help facilitate the connection as well. Thank you, Jordan. With the new house, 'cause I know the new high-part house has a lot of amenities. Is there anything the Stony Brook House is gonna have that new high-part doesn't? - I will tell you that we've added a lot more storage. Everything that you need at your house, we needed our house only times 42 or times 30. So I tell the story that if you can give a dollar, please help us by giving a dollar. If you can give a roll of paper towels, we go through 20 of those a day sometimes. So it's really, storage is a big and important thing. We added a loading dock. So we don't have a loading dock in new high-part. Again, just for so much of supplies and things that move through the building. So we've really learned over the last 40 years, what it takes to run a super-bron-on-the-dome house. And that's what the house and stuff accounting is going to be. - So I would love to give some credit to some of your other big donors too, some of your big partners. If there's anybody out there that you wanna thank too, for being on this project. - Well, it's great to give credit to where credit's going. - Absolutely, I will thank our board of directors. They really have been the driving force behind the growth of the organization. Many of the individuals that came out to support the campaign, $34 million, it's a lot of money guys. It's been a long time raising it. But to take the opportunity just to thank all the individuals, including the Suffolk County PBA, for jumping into the ring with us and for helping us as much as the community does. So we went to a networking event at that Ronald McDonald House hosted with that had a lot of their supporters at. And there were some people there that I didn't even know were involved with Ronald McDonald House, but people that we have good relationships with. So like we saw Senator Monica Martinez at the network. - Sure, sure. - I think former County Executive Steve Bologna was there. So it's great to hear that some of these people that are in positions of power politically can also find ways to try to help Ronald McDonald House share it. - Yeah, really is true. When you say it takes a village it really does. At every level we have involved the community, whether it's our politicians, whether it's families out there, whether it's the board of directors, whether it's donors, there really is something for everyone to get involved with. - Yeah, it's great to hear. It's great to hear that there's a big team out there, a lot of supporters that don't necessarily look for the credit either. They just want to see that good work is being done. 'Cause like I said, these are people that we have relationships with that I didn't even know were involved with. - Sure. - Because they are looking for the credit themselves. - Sure, sure. - And it's about helping the families. - Yeah, that's the really special part about the individuals that have come to support us. They aren't looking for the recognition. They aren't looking for the credit themselves. They just care about families like we do. And they just want to help families like we do. - It's like do it for the cause, not the applause. - Right, right. - So it's amazing. - Yeah, I think that's what the Ronald McDonald has that is all the time. - Yeah, that's a great way to put it. Because to me that's a very good character trait to have. You don't necessarily need the credit when you know something good is happening out there. And I was very impressed when I saw the room of people that were involved that I never knew were involved for that reason. - So guys, I think we were able to get a lot of information out there to the public today. I think a lot of people that maybe didn't know about Ronald McDonald how charities maybe learn something today. I think it's gonna be comforting to at least know that there's gonna be a new house in Suffolk County to service families in need. Is there anything that you feel like we didn't touch on that you kind of wanted to get out there? - Now listen, it's an honor and a privilege to be here. I think that the awareness that's being created by allowing us to come and talk about what it is that we do is worth its waiting goal. So we're just grateful to you for having us and for supporting us in so many ways. - What about some of the upcoming fundraising events? Do you have any big events that people could get involved in? Maybe donate to be a part of like say, I know you have a golf out and coming up. - Sure, yeah. - What on the fundraising is out there? - We have our golf out in for Suffolk County. It's at Nisquag this year and it is on May 18th. We also do a new high park outing that's on July 13th. We do our gala, which is in October as well as a false celebration here in Suffolk County that we do in the fall as well. So there's lots of fun ways to get involved too by attending those events whether it's golfing, whether it's attending the gala. Not only are we getting together and we're having a party and we're having a good time, but we're helping you to meet and cause what we do it. - Yeah, I think events like that are great 'cause it's bringing like-minded people together for a common cause. And a guy like Jordan, I see how to events they're all talking about, is you sit on like eight different boards. - The awesome others come through. (laughing) - So I think those are great opportunities for people that are looking to get involved in an organization like Ronald McDonald's House. So I look forward to attending in the future. I look forward to being a part of this project. - Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. - There's no greater for us to be involved and we use the slogan all the time. Your neighbor is serving your neighborhood. It's not just being a cop in the street. It's nice getting our members out and doing work like this at Ronald McDonald's House. Thanks for watching. every sensing we appreciate the relationship and we look forward to it. That's too many. And I think you haven't even tore, I didn't realize you didn't tore the house. When you tore the house in New Hyde Park, you will realize how great this is. And Alex C.J. I'm with them 30 seconds. Yeah. They knew they wanted to be a part of this. Yeah, it's definitely a worthwhile trip to take. I think when I went on the tour, it was me and Dave San Martino. Yes. So Dave San Martino was a big driving force behind this too when we were describing it to our board. And our board jumped right in. And they, you know, they, they, they trust our judgment. But when we spoke about how touching and moving the Brahmigdon house is when you actually experience it and walk through, it was something all board unanimously approved to be involved in. And remember, there's many ways to give. It's not only about money, like Matt said. So for PBA members, I know I'm harping on this, but for PBA members and their children, if they want them to see what the, what it is to volunteer for somebody or to give back to the community, it's a great opportunity to have their kids come in and cook and bake and volunteer with their own McDonald's house. Because it's so fulfilling in so many ways to so many people to themselves and to the families there. And it's not, they don't have to necessarily donate money if they don't have bines to pay, but they have sweat equity that they can donate and they can appear and show up and that it really like Matt said, they, they serve three meals a day every day. So someone has to cook that. Someone has to provide it. Someone has to prepare it. So I think that's a great point you bring up too. Because some colleges and universities, you know, even from, you know, a kid, a student standpoint, they look for some level of community service and all of it. And I would think, maybe I'm just an eternal optimist, but I think even if you go there with the purpose of, oh, I got to be able to say I do some community service, I think it is rewarding enough where people that go there with that initial motivation will probably return anyway just to help because it is rewarding. It's so true. We see folks come, come to us for community service and once their hours are complete, they continue volunteering because they've just gotten, the mission has gotten under their skin. So yeah, that's great. And I, yeah, thank you for bringing up the, you know, the students and the young kid involvement, especially for the families that, you know, a lot of families, I mean, we talk about politics all the time and the two biggest issues right now, a public safety and affordability. So with affordability being a big issue, a lot of families don't have that expendable income where they could donate, they live in paycheck to paycheck, but to be able to give their, their labor, right, that, you know, their, their, their physical ability to serve the food, cook the food, and help out whatever way they can. I think that's a great aspect to, to highlight. Well, it's a win, win, win, right? And there's a reason why a lot of these high schools require, they require community service. So your membership, I know, has high school aged children, police officers. So I know they exist. And if they need to serve this high school and get their community service in order to graduate, that's a win that they did it. The Ronald McDonald House wins because they volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House, the families at the house win because they were there, it's helped serving food or baking. So really is, again, not for the employees, but for the cause. If it also goes back to a requirement at their school that they must do community service, there's a reason why the schools are asking for that. Right? So this is a very easy lift to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House. And as soon as the, the house is built in Stony Brook, it'll be much more accessible for residents of Suffolk County versus the house in New York Park. It'll of course, are drive, but there's still plenty to do out in Suffolk County for the, how long we expect in the house to take? When is that going to be open? Should we open the end of 2027? So right around the corner. Yeah, two come quicker than you think. Yes, that's for sure. Yeah, I remember when we went for the tour of the New York Park House, 2027 seemed like forever away, but now it's next year. Yes. Yeah, and it's really good. Nice. That's easy. Yep. So, you know, guys, thank you for coming on today. Thank you for spreading out the word about Ronald McDonald House charities. Hopefully this episode reaches some people out there looking to help their communities. And this becomes a way for them to do that, especially as the house becomes local here in Suffolk County. Thank you for the opportunity to come on and for the awareness you're helping us create and for your involvement with the organization. We appreciate that as well. Thanks. And I look forward to doing a follow-up episode when the house opens up and maybe whenever that, you know, something big is happening throughout the organization. That would be great. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you guys coming on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Anna. Thank you. Just a quick message to our audience out there. Please remember to like, share, follow and subscribe. It really helps our content reach more people and it's our algorithm. Thank you.