Whitemarsh Elementary School

Welcome to our team! Our school is proud to participate in Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Philadelphia Region's Read for the House program! We are encouraging our students to participate in the read-a-thon during February to raise money for families with seriously ill children staying at RMHC Philly.

With your support, we can help make this the best year ever!

As a team, we will be reading as much as we can the entire month of February. There are so many things that count towards your reading minutes, such as reading books and magazines, reading instructions or questions on our homework, reading the subtitles on our favorite show or movie... we can even count reading this introduction towards our minutes! 

Continue earning your reading minutes by reading about the McGinley family!

Meet our friend Derek McGinley, a seven-year-old boy whose ultra-rare genetic condition, called SAMD9L, is what doctors estimate is one out of only 25 cases in the world. His specific mutation is the only one of its kind. Last year, Derek’s parents noticed that when he was reading he was looking at books at a strange angle. A routine eye-glass appointment led to dozens of tests and finally a diagnosis of his rare disease and several related conditions. Six months later, The McGinleys came to Philadelphia for expert care and a bone marrow transplant, and checked into our Chestnut Street House. His parents would take turns staying with Derek and staying with his two siblings in their home in North Carolina. His dad, Aaron, says, “Derek’s eyes light up when we talk about the Ronald McDonald House. Everyone there is so kind and welcoming. He knows that he is cared about. To have the Ronald McDonald House taking such good care of Derek while our family figures out how to make love stretch across state lines is an incredible relief, and one for which we are deeply grateful.”