William Blair colleagues from around the globe took on the 2021 Ronald McDonald Charities UK House-to-House challenge this spring to support families with seriously ill children.
This is the second year RMHC organized the fundraiser to provide more overnight stays and services at the 12 Ronald McDonald Houses throughout the UK. At a Ronald McDonald House, families can stay close to their child while they receive treatment for a serious condition at a hospital far from their home. Families can stay free-of-charge for as long as necessary.
Staff from the firm’s offices in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Zurich, Chicago, and Philadelphia chose from three travel routes—each representing the distance between different Ronald McDonald Houses in the UK and EU—to complete over five-weeks beginning in mid-April. They walked, ran, or cycled those distances, raising funds based on their online time logs.
Among the teams representing William Blair, Team Espoir—which took its name from the French word for hope and a cycling term for young talent—finished the European challenge first, covering 2,632 km.
“Ronald McDonald is a community partner of William Blair and it was a great fun to be able to support its mission by cycling through Europe,” said Maarten Meurs, a William Blair investment banker based in Amsterdam who led the team. “On a personal front, close relatives made use of the facilities of Ronald McDonald House in the Netherlands and I experienced myself the true relevance of these houses.”
The House-to-House challenge raised a total of £71,588 ($US 100,913) this year with participants traveling a total of 19,632 km.