McDonald’s said today that its McHappy Day events in November raised €31,000 for the planned Ronald McDonald House Charities Learning Centre run by Inspire.

During the event, people were encouraged to upload photos of their hand in a sock and share their pictures on Facebook tagged as #thehelpingsock. McDonald’s donated €1 for every photo uploaded.

More proceeds were raised from the sale of Ronald McDonald-styled socks. Money boxes were also available in all McDonald’s restaurants.

“We are honoured to have joined all other McDonald’s communities around the world on November 28 to celebrate World Children’s Day. We are grateful to our customers for supporting the Ronald McDonald House Charities to build a learning centre for disadvantaged children which Inspire will run,” Lee Warren, general manager of Premier Restaurants said.

“Next year, McDonald’s will make a 2 euro cents donation from every Happy Meal sold in the restaurants to continue to raise funds for the learning centre. We will also keep the RMHC moneyboxes in the restaurants for silver donations.”

Malcolm Booker, chairman of RMHC Malta, added: “The learning centre will provide support to students with learning difficulties or disabilities as well as those who might come from a troubled social background. Apart from providing formal education, the learning centre will focus on offering nurturing and caring education to help these children lead meaningful lives. We would therefore like to Thank McDonalds for their generous contribution to this important start up project.” 

McDonald’s Malta is operated by Premier Capital plc, the developmental licencee for McDonald’s™ in Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. It operates 64 stores in prime locations. Premier Capital plc also runs 14 McCafé operations across its footprint. Its total staff complement exceeds 2,800 people.