Our annual Ronald McDonald House gala took place on September 6, 2025. Guest family Eric, Kayla and their two children were in attendance. They took the stage to share what donations meant for their family. Both of their children needed life-saving bone marrow transplants a year apart, leaving this family in need of our House and services not just once, but twice. Here is what Kayla shared with the audience that night:

“I can’t even begin to express the immense gratitude that I feel for this foundation. With my first child, the intensity and stress that comes along with receiving a life-threatening diagnosis is a weight in itself. The Ronald McDonald house was able to be my safe haven while learning how to navigate not just motherhood, but medical motherhood. When we received the news that my daughter needed a transplant as well, this foundation made many of the unknowns feel a little more known. Despite not knowing what the medical road ahead would look like, I knew we had a home in the Ronald McDonald House.

When we were invited to speak tonight, I desperately wanted to give you all a glimpse into life as a guest family, and what your donations mean to us. Many people know that it’s housing for medical families. While that is true, to us it’s so much more. The Ronald McDonald House is a place to sleep with no beeping machines. It’s a place where myself and so many others have cried in the showers. It’s a place that provides much-needed coffee for parents to grab bright and early before rounds at the hospital. It’s a place where I watched my son learn to stand on his own, and where I heard my daughter say “mama” for the first time.

Because of donations like yours, families can connect with other families who are also in their most vulnerable state. This is a place where in one room a family is packing after receiving the best news of their life- that their child is cured. While just next door, a different family is packing to go home as well. But this family will instead be going home to a lifetime of grief ahead of them. Most of all… this is a House that for so many wasn’t home but quickly became home.

So, on behalf of our family, the families before us, and the many families to come… thank you for making this House our home.”

Kayla, Easton and Kori’s mom

This speech led a room of hundreds of strangers to work together and surpass the goal set for the night, ultimately leading to over $1 million dollars raised in total. We echo Kayla’s gratitude for your support that makes so many things for families like hers possible.