Volunteers serve up Thanksgiving kindness at Ronald McDonald House

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thanksgiving is a day to be grateful for what you have — but for families with a child in the hospital, the holiday can be especially hard.

At Louisville’s Ronald McDonald House, volunteers spent Thursday feeding people they’d never met — families spending the day away from home to be closer to their loved ones in the hospital.

One of those volunteers is Shirley Mae Waters, whose infectious laugh fills the kitchen.

“Do you have a little one over in the hospital?” she asked one guest.

“We have to go tomorrow morning at six o’clock,” the woman replied.

“Oh goodness, we certainly hope everything goes well,” Waters said.

She and the Pohler family helped staff the serving line, making sure every visitor had a warm meal and a kind word.

“It’s hard,” volunteer Courtney Pohler said. “It’s supposed to be a fun event. But when you think about what’s actually happening — it sinks deep.”

The Ronald McDonald House staff asked that cameras to not show the families being served. Many of them are facing long hospital stays — some lasting months.

“We have quite a few families here two or three months at a time,” said Omar Romero, the House’s chef. “You see what they go through. For us, working the holidays, it really puts things in perspective.”

For Eric Pohler, this act of service is personal.

“I’ve been doing this since I was a young kid,” he said. “I was a scout my entire life — started with Scouting for Food.”

Eric Pohler bought the three 15-pound turkeys that fed dozens of families this Thanksgiving.

Years ago, their own family received help from the Ronald McDonald House.

“Somebody went out of their way to help us,” Eric Pohler said. “And from that moment on, Debbie and I decided we’re going to give back when we can.”

That spirit of giving has been passed down to their daughter, who spent the day cutting pies and handing out slices.

“It’s nothing that’s going to change the world,” Courtney Pohler said, “but it might change the world for someone else — just in their daily lives.”

For the families at the Ronald McDonald House, it was a Thanksgiving meal served with generosity, compassion, and love.

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