Thanks to the sale of this year’s official Festival International de Louisiane pin, $2,500 is being donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Louisiana — a gift that directly supports families facing some of the hardest moments of their lives.
Each year, Festival International selects a nonprofit to benefit from the collectible pin proceeds.
For 2025, 50 cents from every pin sold went to RMHCSLA. With thousands of pins sold, the total donation came out to $2,500.
Grace McIntosh, chief executive officer of RMHCSLA, said the funds will help RMHCSLA continue to serve families of seriously ill or injured children, offering them housing, meals, and emotional support near hospitals.
“It’s that personal connection which is so prevalent,” McIntosh said. “Almost every time I talk to someone about Ronald McDonald House… somebody will come to me and say, ‘My family stayed at a Ronald McDonald House.’”
That sense of familiarity is key to what RMHCSLA offers.
“It’s a ‘home away from home’ for families who travel long distances for specialized pediatric care," McIntosh said. “All of our services are free. That means a very nice, private place to stay with your own bathroom. We provide every meal, snacks, and all your laundry is taken care of… We provide case management, so we help families really help them when they go home.”
She described families arriving in crisis, such as a mother who stayed for nearly a year while her baby remained in the hospital, or the family of a premature infant born weighing just 1 pound, 4 ounces.
“They come to us in just the most dire circumstances… their emotions are raw,” McIntosh said.
Through RMHCSLA, families receive not only day-to-day essentials but also support in transitioning back home.
“We help them access the resources in their community,” McIntosh said. “Where can they access food? How do they fill out the paperwork? How do they get their child on Social Security disability?”
For those who face loss, the charity continues to care.
“When the child should pass, we help with their funeral, with their burial expenses… because that’s part of being here too — we lose some of our babies,” McIntosh said.
The Festival’s donation will also help maintain the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Lafayette.
In 2024, that room served 48 families and 162 individuals with help from more than 1,100 volunteer hours.
“It is literally steps away from the NICU,” said McIntosh, noting that the facility is currently undergoing renovations.
Lafayette and the surrounding Acadiana region represent the largest number of families served by RMHCSLA.
In just the first half of 2025, McIntosh said, they already served 377 families.
Festival International is helping the organization become more visible in a region where it’s desperately needed. “
We hope for their 40th anniversary that we can play an even bigger role,” McIntosh said. “Festival is really becoming a destination… for people from all around the world. It is so unique—it really does represent a very unique cultural experience.”
To support RMHCSLA or learn more, visit www.rmhcsla.org . Donations fund critical programs like the Family Room, Hospitality Carts, and Ronald McDonald House in New Orleans — all helping families get through what no one should face alone.
“Every donation that we get goes to our families… to feed them, to provide them with all the day-to-day essentials,” McIntosh said. “They go to help families like yours, like ours, like your neighbors — because there, before the grace of God, go us.”
