DECA chapter raises over $1,000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities

Junior+Kallie+Leiker+counts+out+books+before+they+are+distributed+to+students.+Each+student+was+asked+to+sell+30+books.+

Isabelle Braun

Junior Kallie Leiker counts out books before they are distributed to students. Each student was asked to sell 30 books.

The Ronald McDonald Houses in Wichita are homes that provide families with severely ill children a place to stay.

The houses have been in existence for over 30 years according to http://rmhcwichita.org/. That same site stated that last year, more than 1,700 families were supported because of donations and volunteers, and in 2014, over 1,800 people or 610 families were helped by RMDH Wichita.

For 18 years, the DECA chapter has been working to raise money to help those families.

This year, juniors Isabelle Braun, Brianna Forinash and Kallie Leiker are in charge of the project. The goal set is $50,000 for this year, and the three lowered that goal in the month of October when they collected $1,200.

The group raised the money by selling coupon books. Each DECA member, as well as Prough, was assigned 30 coupon books to sell on Oct. 5.

Oct. 25, the money was collected along with any remaining books which were then handed off to a local McDonalds. However, with approximately 1,069 books given to them, Braun, Forinash and Leiker had to sell a few more.

“It’s a cost-effective way for people to be able to donate and receive a good product in return,” Prough said.

The goal of this event was to create chapter involvement which is needed for the project, as well as raise money that went directly to the Ronald McDonald Houses.

The books were sold for $1 but had a value of $15 and could be used in different parts of the state. Students found that selling the books was easy.

It was really easy because it was a good deal and a lot of people buy McDonald’s[/pullquote],” junior Emma Malleck said.

Leiker and Forinash agreed that selling the books was easy because they were cheap enough for people to buy.

“It was our goal to sell 1,000 and all of the money was for a great cause of the Ronald McDonald House Charities,” Leiker said. “It helped the project because our goal is really high this year.”

The project will next focus on a Day of Giving in December that they hope will raise most of the remaining goal. Then they will visit the homes in January.

“[I think it did] really well, a lot of people wanted coupon books and a lot of people sold them,” Forinash said. “[I’m excited for] going up to the Ronald McDonald House and helping out because it’s really fun being able to go up there and make a difference.”

19ibraun@usd489.com