Pennies & Spare Change

I was having a late breakfast at McDonald’s in downtown Salt Lake City on Monday. Since I had no reading material, I read the paper placemat that lined the tray while I ate. (Actually, it was a picture of a Jazz basketball player that caught attention. Apparently, he volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House in Salt Lake City.) I was seeing the letters RMHC in the little snippets of information on the placemat. I understood the first three, but I wasn’t sure about the letter C. I thought maybe Center. Looking under my Bacon, Egg Cheese Biscuit I found that C was for Charities. I also learned that each Happy Meal that is ordered, a penny goes to Ronald McDonald House Charities. I am thinking selfish McDonald’s could up it to at least a nickel or a dime. There are a lot of sick children out there and economy isn't exactly doing very well, beside those Happy Meals aren’t that cheap. The placemat also told me that there are donation containers at the counter. So I looked at the counter, but I couldn’t see any thing that looked like a donation container so I left the food court without donating my spare change. But I decided that Mo, my niece who has a birthday this summer would get a McDonald’s gift card with a dime or a dollar attached. Then she can donate a it to RMHC and help a child’s family out while the child is in the hospital.
Reading about the donating at the counter reminded me of the pennies that I and my Primary classmates would drop in a round container each Wednesday afternoon. I don’t think I donated every week and I don’t think every Primary child did. But something was collected every week in the Paul 2nd Ward, even when most of us went to the local mom and pop grocery store nearby. The Primary President wasn’t too happy about that. Those children in the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake wouldn’t get the care they needed without those pennies. Even though I bought penny candy at the store, I made sure I had enough pennies for my birthday. On our birthdays we were expected to donate our age in pennies to the Primary Children’s Hospital. The container even looked like the hospital that was located in Avenues of Salt Lake City.
A few hours after I got home, I looked up Ronald McDonald House. I wanted to know if there are donation containers in every McDonald’s. There is and it looks like it is shaped like a tissue box. Next time, I will know what to look for and from now on, it will be cash only at McDonald’s so that change can go to the donation box. And each fall, I will donate to Primary Children’s Hospital “Pennies by the Inch”. (Over the years the Birthday Pennies morphed into the now annual “Pennies by the Inch”, where one donates by height instead of age.)

Who knew that Primary birthday pennies would set the path to donating spare change at McDonald’s?