| Family guidance: Shirley Snavely |
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Ronald McDonald volunteer has helped for more than 10 yearsBy ED ASHER Shirley Snavely worked with families and children as a teacher and guidance counselor for more than 30 years.She didn’t stop when she retired from the Harlingen school district in 2003. A few years before retirement, a friend told her about Ronald McDonald House. “I wanted some way to volunteer and be helpful to the community. I talked to a friend who was involved with Ronald McDonald House and thought I would like it,” Snavely said. She has been a volunteer now “for at least 10 years.” “I believe strongly in the mission of Ronald McDonald House, which provides a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children,” she said. Since it opened in 1998, more than 2,000 families have called the Ronald McDonald House in Harlingen home. She remembers her first job when she volunteered: stuffing envelopes. But she’s a done a lot more since then. “I have cleaned windows. I have baked cookies and prepared meals and I have done tours through the house,” she said. “The thing I really like to do is bake cookies here because the aroma makes it smell more like home. “And we want our families to feel at home, to feel loved.” She remembers all of the families she has met during her time at the house. One of them, she recalls, was from Raymondville. “They had a very small preemie, just tiny,” she said. “They stayed four weeks, as I recall, and the mother could not thank us enough for the support, the warmth, the love she felt through a time of crisis.” “Anyone wanting to do something for the community and families, this is the perfect opportunity,” she said. “For families at a time when their world is falling apart, they can find comfort and support, a place to stay, meal prepared, so they can concentrate on the needs of their child.” Submit Slice of Life suggestions to Managing Editor Lucio Castillo or City Editor Charlene Vandini at 430-6244 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
Ronald McDonald House Charities® of the Rio Grande Valley depends on the help of the community! We are eager for you to get involved. Here’s how: 95% of our families can’t afford the $10 per night we ask them to consider.
No one is turned away.
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