Guest Chefs Help Provide Comfort to RMHC Families
March 3rd, 2017 | News
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Madison is located in the center of a community that could very well be describes as a classic, hard-working, civic-minded Midwestern town. We are fortunate enough to have a friendship and partnership with a number of businesses and companies throughout northern Illinois and south central Wisconsin.
If you live in the Madison area, chances are good that you have heard of Epic Systems. Epic Systems creates and supports electronic health record software for doctors’ offices, hospitals, and clinics around the world. It is headquartered in nearby Verona, Wisconsin and now employs nearly 10,000 people across all its divisions.
At RMHC-Madison we have had the pleasure of getting to know a number of different groups of employees who have made it part of their business to become a part of our House. We have several self- organized groups from Epic that regularly come to our House as guest chefs and make dinner for the families. During one of their most recent visits, I had an opportunity to catch up with one such group and ask them about their volunteerism at the House.
This group was from Epic’s OpTime/Anesthesia Services. They regularly volunteer to make dinner for our families. They told us that every time they send the email out, notifying their team of an upcoming date to guest chef, the volunteer slots are filled within five minutes and those who can’t come to prepare dinner are quick to offer their help in purchasing the groceries and supplies for the meal.
Rosie Rickard said she got involved with the dinner group because back in New York she used to collect pop tabs for RMHC and came to know it was a great organization. She also added, “I have a soft spot for kids.” Ainsley Timmel, who plans to attend medical school and specialize in pediatrics said, “It is a great place to volunteer!”
Many members of the group shared what a great experience they had volunteering at the House and shared that it was a fulfilling way to connect with their team members as a smaller group within a larger company and it also was satisfying knowing they were helping families have “one less thing to worry about” at the end of a long day at the hospital.
In addition to having several guest chef groups from Epic, many times over the past nearly 20 years, RMHC-Madison has been selected by Epic employees to be one of the philanthropic initiatives they voted to support.
We’d like to thank the following Epic volunteers for their continued support of RMHC-Madison and for making a wonderful meal for the families and kids at the Ronald McDonald House.
- Namuun Batbayar – Anesthesia Technical Services
- Deb Makin – OpTime (surgery) Technical Services
- Joshua Sherrill – OpTime (surgery) Developer
- Matt Rhoads – OpTime (surgery) Technical Services
- Matthew Peterson – Anesthesia Quality Assurance
- Ainsley Timmel – OpTime (surgery)/Anesthesia Implementation
- Rosie Rickard – OpTime (surgery) Technical Services
- Kyle Buescher – Anesthesia Technical Services
- Jake Lemis – OpTime (surgery) Technical Services
- Molly Willette-Green – OpTime/Anesthesia Implementation
