{"id":2795,"date":"2025-10-15T23:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2795\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T23:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:49:12","slug":"meet-one-of-the-volunteers-who-helps-ronald-mcdonald-house-provide-a-home-away-from-home-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2795\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet one of the volunteers who helps Ronald McDonald House provide a home away from home in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronald McDonald House Charities, which provides homes away from home for families with sick children, depends on hundreds of volunteers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Philadelphia volunteer who helps bring the mission to life is Joe Selfridge.<\/p>\n

Selfridge is one of the friendly voices answering the phone and helping at the front desk at the Philadelphia house. He’s been volunteering there for about 10 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Selfridge is a retired Philadelphia teacher and a proud grandfather of nine grandchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Keeping busy and being around wonderful people” is why he volunteers, he said. “Everything about it is nice and fun.”<\/p>\n

He was first introduced to the house by his son, who was also a volunteer, and then Selfridge brought his social studies class for a visit. He was immediately hooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s like addiction, really, when you get started here, and this organization is so, so well-run top to bottom. It’s just a pleasure really,” Selfridge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old spends a lot of time driving vans back and forth to the hospital and interacting with families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House while their sick children are being treated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We try to make things easier for people who it’s not easy, so that’s the best we can do is try to make it easier,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

CBS News Philadelphia<\/p>\n

He’s a grandfatherly kind of guy who knows how to listen and comfort people and tell stories when the time is right. The reigning Super Bowl Champion Eagles are a favorite topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Joe’s very special to us,” said Lori-Anne Miller, director of volunteer programs. “He is just the consummate volunteer.”<\/p>\n

Miller oversees the 350 people who donate their time at the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Volunteers are really at the heart of the house,” she said. “Volunteers help us keep our programs running smoothly so that we can take care of the families staying with us, and we really couldn’t do that important work without them.”<\/p>\n

Selfridge said one of his favorite parts of the gig is being part of the annual Ronald McDonald summer camp for children.<\/p>\n

There’s always plenty of heart in the house when Selfridge is around.<\/p>\n

Heart in the House highlights the essential support Ronald McDonald House chapters provide to families across the Greater Philadelphia Region, New Jersey, and Delaware. To make a donation or learn more about volunteering, visit heartinthehouse.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronald McDonald House Charities, which provides homes away from home for families with sick children, depends on hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,2405,2404],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-rmhc-telethon","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}