MTC students collect and deliver toys for Ronald McDonald House

Ann Akerman (r), executive director of the Ronald McDonald House® of Columbia, and young house guests look over toys that Midlands Technical College students collected for the house. Students from a Midlands Technical College psychology class delivered more than 180 new toys to the Ronald McDonald House® of Columbia on October 23. The toys will be used to restock the house's playroom and will also serve as gifts for sick or visiting children.

The students collected the toys as part of a service- learning project in instructor Holly Beard's human growth and development class. Students in the class study physical and cognitive development from birth to death, and students selected toys that would be developmentally appropriate based on what they are learning in class. Two of Beard's classes collected the toys.

Beard worked with Ronald McDonald House® staff to assess the needs of the house and make arrangements for the project. Thousands of children of all ages come through the house each year, so there is a regular need for replacement of toys that have become damaged or broken. The house also provides new toys as gifts to house guests' sick children in the hospital and well children who are staying at the house.

Midlands Technical College instructor Holly Beard helps deliver toys to the Ronald McDonald House® of Columbia. The executive director of the Ronald McDonald House® of Columbia, Ann Akerman, as well as current children and families who were staying there were present for the toy delivery.

"To know that our community cares that much about what we're doing for children and families of critically ill children, just warms our hearts," said Akerman.

For more information about the Ronald McDonald House® of Columbia, please visit www.ronaldhousecolumbia. org.