SoulStirred: Stories of Growth And The Human Experience

Emily Garcia (00:03)
Welcome lovely listeners to SoulStirred Stories of Growth and the Human Experience. I'm Emily Garcia. And I'm Kasey Clark. We will be your guides on this journey. We are so glad you are here. Each week, we'll come together, sometimes with other incredible thinkers, creators, and adventurers, to generously share stories of self-discovery, recovery, triumph, and what it means to live a life on purpose. No matter where you are in your own journey,

connection is here for you at SoulStirred Settle in, take a deep breath in, and let's inspire each other. Welcome to SoulStirred

Emily (00:49)
Welcome back, Solstead listeners. Today we are here with Laura Cortes. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Denver. She's served in this role for the past six and a half years supporting the families of sick children who need to travel to Denver for medical treatment. The Ronald McDonald House provides free housing for these families for as long as it takes.

They also wrap around families with hot meals, activities for family members, and most importantly, community. Laura has spent her career working for nonprofits, from a nonprofit preschool to a mental health advocacy organization. She's passionate about the intersection of healthcare, children, and creating a world where families have choices about their futures. She has lived in Denver for the past 12 years with her husband and two dogs. Welcome Laura.

Laura Cordes (01:42)
Thanks so much for having me.

Kasey (01:45)
Hi, Laura. We're so glad to have you on Soulster today. Emily and I first met Laura. It was probably a couple of months ago when you invited us down to the Ronald McDonald House. And we were actually just so inspired by the important work that you are doing there and the day that you showed us around and told us about your service that we invited you to be on the show because we thought that our listening audience could really.

both benefit from knowing about what's going on at the Ronald McDonald House, as well as maybe be of mutual service back to the Ronald McDonald House and some of the needs of the families you have staying there. So we're certainly glad to have you here and to highlight the important work that you're doing there today on the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself and the Ronald McDonald House and how you came to be there and what you're up to there.

Laura Cordes (02:41)
Yeah, of course. Well, thanks. And thanks for this opportunity. I really look forward to sharing more with your audience. They seem like amazing people, so happy to have this chance. So the Ron McDonald House is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which is truly amazing, serving millions of kids around the world. And our chapter here in Denver is celebrating our 45th anniversary. So it's a pivotal time for us to think about what's next.

for the next 45 years, the next 50 years, how do we serve families to the best of our abilities? And I get the privilege of leading that team and working alongside our board to help figure out what that is. How do we ensure that families have potentially more than a comfortable bed and a hot shower and a nice meal, but things that really do help them live better, more fulfilling lives.

as they work towards ensuring that their families are healthy and that their kids can grow strong and thrive, not just survive.

Kasey (03:50)
Nice, nice. And let's just give a little background and context. What is the Ronald McDonald House? Who does it serve?

Laura Cordes (03:59)
Yeah, so our Ronald McDonald House, we have two here in the Denver metro area, one in downtown and one in Aurora, and each night 118 families can spend the night with us when they come into town for medical services at any one of the myriad of hospitals that serve kiddos here in the area. And so we don't care how much a family makes, we don't care what that diagnosis is, we just want to be a safe haven for families.

when their lives are turned upside down by a medical diagnosis or by a premature baby or by anything that is really unpredictable but needs care here and they have to travel from 50 or 60 miles to get that care because it isn't available in their home community.

Kasey (04:41)
Yeah, it's one of the things I was really touched by when we toured your facility. It's really kind of a niche, right, of service area. So for people whose children are being cared for by some illness or crisis in a local medical facility and coming off and right from those communities that are more rural or who have less access to those kind of resources available to them. And so people are needing to leave.

their homes, their lives, their jobs, the community resources and support systems that help them when they're at home to come to what to them is a remote area. And from there, I'm sure we can all think about all of the things that we would need and not have resources to account for in a situation where now we're traveling and our total focus is pointed at getting our sick person well.

Can you talk a little bit about what some of the needs are of the people who come and stay at the house?

Laura Cordes (05:44)
Yeah, that's a really good summation, Casey. That's exactly right. So families may come for us for one day because they have an appointment and really, you know, a hotel in Denver might cost more than $200 a night. And so to not have to worry about where you're going to sleep or what you might have for dinner that day so that you can be there to be all present in your doctor's appointment is really critical. Or you could be with us for a year. You could be dealing with.

a child who's in need of a transplant or really, really sick and tiny premature baby who's just trying to grow and get stronger and be able to graduate from the NICU and go home and live a healthy life. But those families then, you're exactly right, they come to us from rural places where they don't have high quality medical care. They might have to take a leave of absence from their work or not get paid while they're here. They have to.

Kasey (06:27)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (06:41)
There's already gas, right? The cost of gas, inflation means that the price of everything from groceries to services have gone up. And so they're dealing with that, let alone medical bills or other things that they have to worry about. And so our goal truly is if we can release just a little bit of that tension and that stress and anxiety that they're feeling by all of those other pinches and not have to make another decision in their day. That's what gives me joy. I mean, truly to go back and answer your earlier question.

That's really what brings me to this work is that if we can free them up, they then have more capacity to think about what's next for them, their family, and how to readjust their world to whatever it is that they're going to face next.

Kasey (07:27)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Emily (07:29)
When we toured your facility, one of the things that I really enjoyed is that you pointed out that even though it's, you know, all the things are taken care of, you didn't want it to feel like a hotel. You didn't want the families to show up there and feel like, this is just business, but that they really had a sense of community and that they were being cared for and loved while they were there. So they're, you know, they're the children's areas and there's the food provided and...

Families can bring their own food if they prefer, or they can have a hot meal made for them and that volunteers come and make food. Tell us about the volunteer program.

Laura Cordes (08:08)
Yeah, it's folks like you in the community who really helped make this place go round 24 -7, right? We don't close. We are open all day, all year long. And there's families under our roof during that time, right? And so I have an amazing staff of 35, 36 people, and yet that's not enough, right?

We rely on the community who wants to come in and sit at the front desk and make it feel welcoming. They can be that concierge, like a hotel, right? They can give you directions and tell you where to go to the grocery store or what to do in your free time. But it's more than that really, right? There are folks that come and do projects for us. We have folks who help landscape, you know, just keep it pretty. We think families deserve a nice welcoming landscaped place.

Kasey (08:57)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (08:57)
or you're coming in, you're cooking meals. And so there's two ways to do that. Whether you come and bring a group, it can be your book club, your company, your neighbors, your family, any iteration of that works. Bring about eight or 10 people. Think about what you might want to serve families. Go out and procure those items. Work with our culinary manager to come up with exactly what kind of quantity that means to serve dinner. But our goal really is,

seven nights a week that we are able to provide dinner in both of our houses. And so it takes groups every single night coming alongside us and doing that together. And then serving the 50 or 60 people with a wonderful home cooked meal, hearing their stories, sitting down and talking with them, or just a smile. Sometimes that's all that matters. The families don't have the capacity maybe because they've had a really hard day, but they just appreciate a smile and that food on their plate.

and then they're able to go back and think about what's next.

Kasey (10:00)
Yeah.

Emily (10:03)
I think that I'd imagine for the families who end up there, the emotional overwhelm of whatever their medical situation is that they're experiencing has to be really tough. And that was part of how we got into contact was because when you were going through such big things, the overwhelm takes precedence and yet people really are, they're experiencing a lot of

pain that comes out of like not knowing and not having the answers to whatever is going on or not knowing how long it's going to be. And so what are the things that you see with families where they need emotional and mental health support or just extra care?

Laura Cordes (10:52)
Yeah, I'll tell you a quick story of a family that I met this last week and Casey it touches on the difference of being a hotel. And so this we've been so busy, so full the demand has been kind of unprecedented for us. And so we do need to think about how we can serve more families. But for the families that are under a roof, this was a good example. This mama had to stay in a hotel one night because we couldn't get her in the very first night that she needed to come into town from Montana.

Her 12 -year -old daughter has had a relapse of thyroid cancer, and so she's going to need surgery pretty quickly. They believe that it's high chances of recoverability, which is fabulous. But she stayed in this hotel, and the daughter is so weak that right now she's in a wheelchair. And a gentleman, probably well -meaning, I know you always talk about on this podcast about not really knowing where people are at, but giving them the benefit and some

grace for it, but he went out of his way to ask her, well, why is your daughter in the wheelchair? Sort of accusatory. And this mom was so overwhelmed, I think, by the new diagnosis, having been flown here from Montana, being away from her two other kiddos, sort of putting her life on pause, you're exactly right, for however long it's going to take for this daughter to recover, that she about lost it on this gentleman, you know? She had no more capacity to think about his position.

any point, she just said, when I saw her that next day, she was so glad to be settling into the Ronald McDonald House because she knew that everyone in this space gives each other that kind of grace. You're not going to go ask a question. You're going to wait for a family or another parent to disclose that information. Or at 12, the daughter can speak for herself, right? If she wants to share her medical journey, she can.

but this mom was just so overwhelmed that she sort of snapped. And so she apologized and she was in tears and all of the things. And I think she finally recovered and realized she could pinpoint exactly why she had had that reaction, right? It was so much going on. Then flash forward that same morning, then she's making coffee. So she's sitting out on the patio drinking it, which is when I've run into her and she has just inadvertently poured another family's creamer.

Kasey (13:00)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (13:16)
into her coffee because it was sitting there. And she was mortified by this of like, my gosh, you know, they worked hard. This is their creamer. I didn't mean to steal it. And yet again, she was just in this fog of trying to figure out, you know, their day. They had biopsies. They had a myriad of appointments. And so when she went and told this family, she apologized for drinking their creamer. They were, you know, totally happy to share it with her. They were happy to have her.

have a little bit in her copy of that made her day a little bit better. And so I think that's the biggest difference between a hotel where you're anonymous and yet you're also not anonymous because people feel like they can ask you questions. At the Ron McDonald House, they felt like they could have a little bit of a different kind of level of understanding and a different kind of conversation that was more accepting and more humble and just more encouraging as a whole. And so those are some of the needs, right? You think about the daughter.

who's 12 going through this herself, right? Trying to explain it to her friends and they all think she's dying and they're worried through the roof and she can't calm them down enough, let alone herself. And then mom is sitting there trying to figure out how to explain it and come up with her story that she tells her friends and her family and her boss and all of that. And so I think it's the needs really are both for patient and for families as they.

have to think about in brand new ways what their life might look like moving forward.

Kasey (14:52)
I gratefully, I think it's one of those things many of us have not had to experience. And so I would love to just put, I love the story you just told, and I feel this need to kind of just say even more about it, because I think we don't, generally speaking, have an understanding of what it might be like to be hit with a crisis, a medical crisis of our child.

And when that happens, as a mom, I can't imagine thinking about anything else other than what do I got to do to save my child? And then you find yourself in a new city where you don't have your people, you don't have your support system, you've maybe had to leave behind your other children who rely on you for care, the other responsibilities you have in life, like for work and maybe other people that you care for or look after, pets.

things of that nature. And so I'm imagining people coming into Denver, like I didn't even think about what clothes did I need to bring or where am I laying my head tonight or how will we eat through the week, let alone organizing all of this, what I imagine is new information about how I'm going to care for my sick child and try to fight for their lives and keep them alive. So of course.

People need to be in a setting where they're surrounded by other people with a similar experience and also helpers. The support system has to be inserted because you're not thinking when you're faced with crisis of planning for your basic needs and how you're going to get through the day to day. It's just really a wonderful service that the house is there.

and has done some of that thinking for people. Yeah. So I wonder if you might tell, because you shared it with Emily and I the day that we visited, and I think it's profound and powerful, and it might also help contextualize this, but the beginnings of the Ronald McDonald House, how was it started and who thought of it? Where did this come from?

Laura Cordes (17:09)
Yeah, it's a fun story and I think it shows again the power of community as you talk about who wraps their arms around the families but also the community as a whole. So 50 years ago, a football player from the Philadelphia Eagles, his daughter was going through leukemia treatment. She survived. But again, as you say, Casey, just trying to even imagine what he must have been going through with a new diagnosis and so.

Kasey (17:15)
Yeah.

Laura Cordes (17:39)
There he is sitting in the waiting room of the Philadelphia Children's Hospital on hard chairs, eating unnutritious food out of vending machines, you know, there in the mid 70s. And yet was in partnership with an amazing oncologist who was light years ahead of her time, Dr. Audrey Evans, who just passed away last year. But she was on the forefront of really realizing,

that families needed more than just amazing medical care. She would do things like bring in birds and other animals. That was before we understood the value of therapy, animals and pets. And so she'd have them in her waiting room to try and make it just a little more comfortable. But this dad, this Philadelphia Eagles player said, but there has to be more, right? I get that that's great. And I live here in town and I am a man with resources. I'm making an NFL salary.

Kasey (18:21)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (18:38)
And what about these other families to that point of having to travel or families who just are uprooted from everything that they know? And so he went back to the Eagles and said, we got to figure something out. The Eagles then went to McDonald's and said, we think a house is the answer. We think being able to walk there so that families can get a good night's sleep, they can be well rested, have a meal, have a hot shower.

be on their best so that the next day they can come and support their kiddo through whatever they're going through for as long as it takes is super important. So McDonald's started selling those shamrock shakes, the green minty kind that come out in the spring. And the money from those, that sale, that first year went to go for a down payment on a house, a mansion nearby. And that was the genesis of the Ronald McDonald House. And so in a lot of ways,

Kasey (19:17)
Yeah.

Laura Cordes (19:31)
That's how they've started all across the country and now all across the world in more than 60 countries and locations. And so our story here in Denver is similar. Seven or eight McDonald owner operators literally signed their businesses as collateral to help us purchase a mansion at 16th and Ogden with 15 bedrooms for families. So it's always a partnership between the medical community, the...

general community, right? Those individual customers who helped buy those shakes and then McDonald's coming alongside. And so we're named kind of in honor of them being willing to raise money for us. And so they do the same thing now and support about 10 % of my budget every year to help make it a free place to stay for families, no matter what.

Kasey (20:22)
Nice, nice.

Emily (20:23)
You know what's really cool about that is it's the little tiny things that each person can do you can go just buy a shake and you are helping because I Think as humans we tend to get discouraged and go. I can't do that much I don't have that much time or I don't have that much money What exactly can I do? But when they're the little things everyone can do something little and every little thing creates a compound effect to make something big

Kasey (20:49)
Yes, shamrock shakes. Buy your shamrock shakes and drink your shamrock shakes. Yeah.

Laura Cordes (20:50)
Yeah. Shamroches.

Emily (20:51)
So, yes.

Yeah.

Laura Cordes (20:55)
We do that anymore in our market, but what I recommend to the listeners and what I know I do is it's about french fries. So we get a penny for every pound of french fries that's sold in 185 McDonald's restaurants in the region. So we say eat as many french fries or buy happy meals and a penny from every happy meal comes back to us. So those are the simplest ways or you round up your change when you...

pay with your credit card, or if you're still paying with cash, you put your quarter in. And yes, that's exactly right. All of that adds up. Each person can do something as small as that, which help put yourself in those shoes of another family who might be going through a medical crisis.

Kasey (21:37)
love that. Well, that's an easy sale. It's not hard to get people to eat more McDonald's french fries. And one penny of every pound will go towards supporting Laura's organization and what they're up to there. And that's important. Yeah, I love that. So now bring us to date. You are seeking at least the conversation you had with Emily and I was about how tribe mind body wellness might be of service to the Ronald McDonald house. Tell us what has you knowing.

Laura Cordes (21:51)
That's right.

Kasey (22:06)
that mental health services are what's needed now for the community staying in your home.

Laura Cordes (22:11)
Yeah, I think we've always conceptualized what we do as being the roof over someone's head, right? And all the things that go into a house, the things you might need to run your own household or what we've prioritized. It's laundry, it's a stocked pantry, it's a really soft, tempurpedic bed, it's a hot shower, it's the ability to take a bubble bath if you want it. It's, you know, play a game of pool and it's sit outside in the sun and it's the, the -

the homemade meal, all those kinds of things. But what we are realizing too is that we know there's a mental health crisis for kids in our state, in our country, let alone, you know, one in four people in Colorado will experience a mental health crisis in their lifetime. And so we know the families have to be impacted just as much, whether they say it or not. I think in a lot of ways it's an unspoken need that we're identifying. But in the evenings when families come back,

A lot of times they just want to talk. They want to debrief about their day. They want to complain or they want to share the good news. And what we realized is that our staff who are incredibly well -meaning people who are here for the mission, they want to serve these families with their whole heart, aren't trained professionals like Emily and Casey and Tribe MindBody. They're just folks who can help navigate.

resources, right? They can help Google all day long, they can point you to the Colorado crisis line, they can do things like, you know, bring in some pro bono therapists that we've had over time. But how do we more holistically think about meeting family's needs? When they're already overwhelmed, so making another appointment seems like a stressful thing to do. They can barely be present, physically present when they're thinking about, appointment got rescheduled or

Kasey (24:01)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (24:05)
something went late into the evening or something got canceled. And so how do we make mental health support for families accessible and in a way that they will respond to positively. So that's where I posit the question to you. What could that look like for us as we think about that next 45, 50 years of serving families well?

Kasey (24:29)
Yeah, yeah. And one of the things that we, I remember we talked about together was if there were a way to create sort of therapeutic micro moments where there would be trained professionals like Emily and I there at the Ronald McDonald House, at least during the most populated times, like in the evenings when they're coming home from the hospital, who could be there for a more organic.

type of this isn't necessarily you signing up for and enrolling into a therapeutic process that's going to take you through years of your life, but there is a therapist in the space who sees that you have something that you need to process and is willing to come and be next to you and listen to what needs to be processed and maybe offer something that feels a little bit like help.

or something that could bring something that resembles a little bit of relief in the midst of what we've said before is a really terrifying and challenging chapter in their lives because their kids' lives and medical health and wellbeing are at risk. And we know the medical system is a hard thing to navigate and being in that crisis is a hard thing to navigate. And who doesn't need?

some additional love and support when everything like that is happening all around them. So in this moment, we want to sort of activate a call for action to the Solstead audience to say, here's a community that are doing really, really important and necessary work in the world who are in need of a service.

And so if we have anybody out there who is a mental health professional or knows a mental health professional or even just has ideas for how we could bring folks who have the skills and training together with the people in need and how to form those connections, please let us know what your thoughts and ideas are and write to us at solstirdpodcast at gmail .com and we can get you and Laura connected. I truly believe.

that this is a relationship that is trying to happen and that wants to happen. And by the three of us making it public, we'll help move it forward in some way. I know that I personally felt inspired and pulled to be of service to the Ronald McDonald House, just to having visited it and meeting with Laura. I think this is an important opportunity.

And I hope that Solstead can help the connections happen that want to happen to get those people what they need.

Emily (27:16)
a question, Laura, and thank you for kind of wrapping that around, Casey, because that's kind of goes with what I was saying before, that it's not one person or one organization that has that is like, okay, how do we do it all? But if many people or multiple people come together and do one little thing, it can turn into something big. So it's an opportunity for us and our listeners and the community at large to do something that could be really great. And my question,

Laura Cordes (27:17)
Mm -hmm.

Kasey (27:36)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Emily (27:46)
back to that is I know that you have a background in working in mental health advocacy. And I wonder how that has influenced the way that you have shown up at Ronald McDonald House and how you have, it's allowed you to see the needs at a deeper level. What are your thoughts on that?

Laura Cordes (28:05)
Yeah, so prior to this, I worked for Mental Health Colorado, an advocacy organization that does statewide outreach here based in Denver. And having come from the East Coast where mental health resources are more readily available, right? There's just more practitioners per population really realizing that this whole pick yourselves up from your.

the bootstraps mentality of the West of we can just do it if we will it truly isn't the case. That's why there's a crisis. And so we were doing systemic work at the state Capitol, helping create the crisis line walk -in centers for folks to be able to have better access to mental health care. You talk about the professionals that exist in your sphere and yet I know there's not enough of them and you are all stretched thin. There's more need than we.

have professionals to meet that demand. And so while I appreciate the call to action, Casey and Emily, I know that people are kind of strained beyond their limits. And so what I'm asking really is about even can you go beyond that, you know, to a point of donating time or contracting with me beyond your normal caseload to think about meeting those needs. And so.

One of the first things I did when I came to Ron McDonald House was bring on a pro bono therapist through Spark the Change Colorado, which again, just they have a cadre of volunteers who are trained licensed professionals to provide counseling to families. And so right now we just have one, there's one woman who donates her time to be available via Zoom or to come into the house and have sessions with families. And.

We don't call it therapy. We just say, let's talk it out. Let's have a conversation. Let's sit down and just, you know, talk about life and figure out if there's ways to support them in their journey or whatever it needs that come up. You know, then we can refer out to resources and other higher levels of care that need be. But I know that's not enough, right? One person a couple of times a week doesn't meet the needs of 118.

opportunities with families. And so I think it's about expanding capacity and we're willing to put dollars and time behind it. But you know, our staff doesn't have that capacity or the training. And so is it about the community and how we can collectively help address this problem for one instance, right? Whether they're there for a day or whether they're there for six months.

Developing that therapeutic relationship may be untenable for a family to truly be able to dive in and have, you know, an ongoing relationship with a therapist. But we know that every interaction has the power to be important in those families' lives.

Emily (31:11)
the tiniest interactions can really shape us in one way or another. And when you are in such an intense and overwhelming state and time in your life, having someone who just is there, just to give you the space to be however you are, is so powerful. When we talked before, I thought if there were people, if there were mental health providers who could just come and be there at meal times, then it...

It's like, okay, you can have like, you know, just a conversation, but then that can lead to the families or whoever saying, actually, can I have a little more of your time? And then getting that one -on -one talk it out time, which is what people really need. And I will say, I, this is giving me some perspective because I got a flat tire over the weekend and discount tire was closed on Sunday. And so I had to take my car in this morning.

And I was thinking through my day and I'm like, you know, summer camp pickup and drop off and being here for the podcast and some other things that had to be done. And I was like, how am I going to get everything done? And I was irritable because I had to change everything in my schedule. And it's such a minuscule thing. It is totally a thing that is fixable and figure outable today. And yet the way that it impacted me emotionally. And if you think about how that was for me on a much larger scale,

skill for people who really don't have control over their schedule or where they're going to be or the woman last week where she's in the hotel with her 12 year old and the way that people are talking to her and her kids at home. It is such a needed thing. So I think just being there in those little moments with people could make a huge difference because we all need support at times.

Kasey (32:52)
Mm -hmm.

Laura Cordes (33:01)
Yeah, we're trying to do more with our staff around, you know, mental health first aid and trauma informed care so that they can have some of those micro interactions, the smile, the asking someone the right kind of question so that they feel like they're safe and can share if they need or the encouragement that doesn't put it on. I personally am going to help solve this for you, but we collectively are here for you. And so I think you're right. It's about those little tiny.

moments that happen every day.

Kasey (33:33)
Yeah. Yeah.

Emily (33:35)
Yeah. One of my favorite stories is it's a Peruvian tribe. And the story is about a little tiny hummingbird that there's a forest fire and all of the animals are on the outside of the forest and they're watching the fire and they're all saying, I don't know what to do here. I'm like, I'm helpless. I'm

I can't do anything. And this little tiny hummingbird, they all of a sudden realize up above, it's flying back and forth and back and forth. And they're like, what are you doing little hummingbird? And the hummingbird is picking up one tiny drop of water from a stream nearby and bringing it back and dumping it on the fire. And if each animal does that, it can help to put out the fire. And so that's, that really is what we're doing is that if everyone does one little thing,

It is if all of your staff have that one thing they can say like, OK, I know how to respond or I know where to point you or I know what to say in just this moment or let you be. And then there are other people who come in. It puts out the fire.

Kasey (34:37)
Yeah.

Emily (34:38)
Yeah, or keeps it from spreading. Maybe that's, you know, to keep it from intensifying. Yeah.

Kasey (34:45)
Yeah. We're seeking hummingbirds with drops full of water. Yeah. Where are the hummingbirds?

Emily (34:49)
Yeah, so where are our hummingbirds?

Laura Cordes (34:50)
That's right. That's right. Yeah. And again, I know if time and capacity are stretched thin, you know, there's other ways to help too, right? From coming and cooking a meal. So that's that one interaction. You're sitting there serving somebody, you know, a sandwich and you're just saying, hey, I see you, you know, I want to hear your story if you're willing to share it, but I'm not going to push you. And so, right. That could be a three hour.

interaction one time, totally fine. You know, it's also the people who donate things that keep us going, right? So it's the wishlist things like just being able to not have to think about toilet paper or paper towels, right? You don't have to run, run out to Walmart at nine o 'clock at night because there's no more toilet paper and oops, you know, you've been at the hospital that you didn't think about toilet paper but

Kasey (35:22)
Mm -hmm.

Emily (35:36)
Yeah.

Laura Cordes (35:45)
We're always going to have that. We're always going to have shampoo and we're always going to have batteries when you need it. And so sometimes that is enough too, to relieve just a little bit of stress or ease someone's burden.

Kasey (35:55)
Mm -hmm.

Emily (35:58)
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Are people able to contact Ronald McDonald directly to make donations or to sign up to volunteer?

Kasey (35:58)
Yeah.

Laura Cordes (36:07)
Absolutely, yep, our website is a fabulous place that has all of that information and that's www .rmhc -denver .org and there's all sorts of tabs about volunteering, about our wish lists, about making a cash donation if that is the way that you want to show up or help or find out more, right? There's ways to just watch videos and be an ambassador.

for us in the community say, hey, I learned about this great organization and I want to share it with everybody that I know because we are a niche and not everybody kind of fully understands what we do. But I think everybody can relate whether you have a kid, whether you've been a kid or whether you know a child, you can understand what it might be like to have your world turned upside down.

Kasey (36:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Emily (36:56)
Yeah. Do you have a story about a family that has been there that is just when you think about the work that you're doing, it's the story that comes to mind?

Laura Cordes (37:09)
there are so many. There's this, there was this little boy who stayed with us during COVID, right? So you think about how your life has already been sort of out of the norm, right? Things are weird and you don't know what end is up. And at this point, that boy was five and needed a heart transplant.

and was coming from Texas where they said, look, we can monitor them, but we're not the place to go and get this heart transplant. We're not the place that's gonna be able to do the surgery effectively. And we just don't have the population to pull from to even get you to the place where we can get you that heart. So we're gonna send you to Denver and you're gonna need to be there before, during, and after the procedure. And so this family, you know, again,

came one summer over COVID and didn't leave for more than 400 days. So they were there waiting to be close. So luckily dad was able to transfer his job and was able to work from Denver. But mom quit her job to be able to be there with the five -year -old, just waiting, right? Being monitored, hoping that his name would move up on that transplant list and it finally did.

And so over that course of the 400 days, they came, they stayed, they got the transplant. You know, they have a little bit of setbacks. He's back in the hospital, but then he's strong. Then he's, you know, so strong that he's riding around on a hoverboard in our parking lot.

Emily (38:48)
Ha ha ha.

Laura Cordes (38:50)
and finally got the all clear after about 416 days and got to go back to Texas. And sure, maybe he'll have to come back up for some checkups, but as a whole, he's going to live an amazingly full life now. And we were able to be there for that family during not only a weird time in the world, but a terrible time in their life. And so they...

were so grateful they were willing to share their stories. So that's one of the videos that you'll see on our website. But really it became their true home away from home, right? The dad started saying, well, can I help fix things around the house? And mom wanted to help cook meals for families and things like that. And so they really adopted it as their own. And then we're able to pass that on to the next families that came and stayed, built community, taught them the ropes.

Kasey (39:24)
well

Yeah.

Laura Cordes (39:47)
and encourage them even though, you know, from one moment to the next, they really weren't sure what was gonna happen with their little kiddo.

Kasey (39:55)
Mm -hmm. Wow. And I can only imagine how things would have been different for them if there hadn't been a Ronald McDonald House. What would they have done for 416 days, you know?

Emily (39:57)
It's powerful.

Laura Cordes (40:05)
Yeah, you think about, right, right. You can't just rent another apartment. You know, who can pay two rents? Who can?

Kasey (40:11)
Right. Who can afford to have two lives, one in Denver and one in Texas? And then what does that mean for you? And wow. Wow.

Emily (40:22)
and all while accruing medical bills, which we all know are not cheap, so...

Kasey (40:25)
Yeah. And not knowing whether or not your five -year -old will survive in the meantime. It is seriously stressful. Wow. I'm so glad you're there.

Laura Cordes (40:38)
Well, we're glad the community is there for us. It helps make it possible that we can keep doing this for the next 45 years.

Emily (40:39)
Me too.

Kasey (40:41)
Thank you.

Emily (40:45)
Is there anything we haven't asked that is important?

Laura Cordes (40:48)
I don't think so. I think you've covered the broads and you've covered the specific,

Emily (40:52)
I think that's our last question then. It is what are you grateful for?

Laura Cordes (40:57)
Yeah, I appreciate that you end with this question. Around this entire theme of today's conversation, I am thankful for compassionate, empathetic people who come around our work and our families so that no family will ever have to pay to stay with us, that families have then the best experience possible while they're in town and under our roof. I get it that it might be really hard, it might be really challenging and not all the outcomes are what we want them to be, but that they're

they can look fondly around staying with us. That's really what matters. I'm grateful for folks who are creative, help us problem -solve, folks like you and Casey, who are thinking outside the box about how we can wrap our arms around families. I'm thankful for folks who are connected to others in the world, right? I hope that this podcast has ripples out in the community and who knows who knows who could help.

And then folks who have time and resources really to just be there for us in these families when they need it the most. So I'm thankful for the community, really.

Kasey (42:07)
Yeah.

Emily (42:07)
Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. And we are grateful you've been here because you are doing such mission -driven work that is really, it is about community. It's about supporting people and making them feel like they have a place to belong at one of the hardest times in their lives. So again, podcast listeners, if you have ideas or you are a therapist or a mental health provider and you want to...

be a part of this, please write us solsturdpodcast at gmail .com. And we will include all of Laura's contact information in the show notes. So if you missed the link or anything like that, check the notes and you will find it there. Laura, thank you so much for joining us today.

Laura Cordes (42:55)
Thanks folks, you're amazing humans. I appreciate you.

Kasey (42:58)
And so are you, and so do we. Yeah.

Emily (43:03)
Alright everyone, take care of yourselves and we will see you later.

Kasey (43:08)
Bye bye.