Pulling for the House

April 14th, 2020 | News

A local man from the Village of Arena, Wisconsin is the perfect example of kindness and dedication. Mark has been working at the local recycling center for as long as his community members can remember. Each week, Mark sifts through the recyclables to remove and save all the pull tabs from cans to be donated to RMHC. As a man with Asperger’s and other health issues, he does not drive far and therefore relies on people from his community to transport the tabs he collects to RMHC-Madison – each donation usually containing thousands of tabs. Sorting, removing, and collecting pull tabs is something that he does purely out of the goodness of his heart, without special recognition and without being asked. Lucky for us, someone thought Mark deserved recognition for his incredible efforts and shared his story with us.

In the Village of Arena, there isn’t recycling pick-up, instead, the recycling center is open just a few hours every Saturday. This is where Emily Sawle met Mark. She describes Mark as the nicest person she’s ever met and someone who really believes in what the Ronald McDonald House does. Emily reached out to the staff at the House to share Mark’s story and asked that we send a simple thank you. After learning more about his above-and-beyond efforts we sent Mark a thank you from all the staff, along with an official ”Pull Together” shirt, and a special recognition award.

We truly appreciate all Mark does and are very thankful Emily gave us the chance to show him!