Jefferson Awards: Woman Helps Families With Seriously Ill Kids
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) -- The Ronald McDonald House of San Francisco is a home away from home for families with seriously ill or injured children who are in the hospital. For one Bay Area woman, it's also a place to give back.
Wai-Ling Eng made a choice to create positive change, "I thought I'm going to step through that door, and I'm going to see what I can do to make a difference in someone else's life."
Eng says others helped her when she was a young girl and her family emigrated from Hong Kong.
"We didn't speak any English," Eng said. "We had very little money and resources and it was really hard starting life in a new country."
With the support of teachers and church, Eng became a nurse, married and settled in San Francisco. Despite her accomplishments however, she never forgot those who helped her along the way.
"I think without them, you know, I wouldn't be where I was, where I am today," Eng said.
She has spent time at the San Francisco Ronald McDonald House where Executive Director Lois Moore said she's become a fixture.
"Wai-Ling is all heart," Moore said. "Wai-Ling is supporting us here at the house, coming here with her family and working on volunteer projects."
These projects have helped support the many families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House when their children are seriously ill.
Eng's relationship with McDonald's started almost twenty years ago when she and her husband took a risk and decided to make a career change by buying their first franchise. Soon they owned ten McDonald's restaurants. Despite her success, it was her work through Ronald McDonald House Charities that brought Eng full circle.
She started a scholarship program among franchise owners and an operator, which in ten years has handed out almost $1.5 million to Bay Area college-bound students.
"As a recipient of scholarships myself," Eng said, "I could not have completed college without the generosity of folks providing scholarships. It meant everything to me."
It has also meant a lot to the students Eng has helped. "For me it was a way to help my family with some money issues," student Christopher Roman said. "I'm the first in my immediate family to go to college."
Justine Woemer is also a student who agreed, "That extra money does a lot. It helps me with books."
Eng has continued her support of Bay Area families facing the challenges of health and education by working to bring Ronald McDonald House to a new campus at Mission Bay where she can expand her reach.
"Once you start doing good things for others," Eng said, "Good things will come back to you. It goes in a full circle."
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
