Ronald McDonald Family Retreat® Fiona Lodge

2008 has been a busy year for Ronald McDonald Family Retreat Fiona Lodge. 

February saw Fiona Lodge host three orphan children from Wuxi China to a holiday of a lifetime.  The three children enjoyed a two week holiday along with an interpreter and a carer from the orphanage, seeing the sights of Sydney before spending a week getting to meet the locals of Batemans Bay, a chance to visit the local primary and secondary school and make life friends.  Whilst they couldn't speak English a never ending smile was never off their face.

Special thanks to our Partron, Steve Larkham, and his wife Jaqueline and family who showed great Aussie hospitality spending time in both Sydney and Batemans Bay with the kids teaching them how to play rugby on the beach and playing cards.

Jenny Marsh, Julie Knight, Cathy Harris and their team of helpers held a successful mid-year annual gala dinner which raised, valuable funds for the ongoing maintanance of the house and the remodel of the children's room and outdoor BBQ area.  It was a great night special thanks also to the evening's major sponsor Commonwealth Bank Batemans Bay branch.

Later in the year, the Batemans Bay Police Officers Chartiry Golf Day will be holding a fundraiser with proceeds raised for Ronald McDonald Family Retreat Fiona Lodge, details will be posted to the website shortly so stay tuned.

Fundraising continues as plans progress to update the kids play area and build an undercover comunal outdoor BBQ area, which will give the two families staying at the beach house a chance to mix and share stories of their holiday adventures. 

The house is currently undergoing a freshen up; the external of the house painted in a contemporary earthy palate inspired by the surrounding spotted gum and iron bark gum trees.

McDonald's Batemans Bay McHappy Day RMHC store ambassador Robert Vines and his team of volunteers are well underway organising fun activities for McHappy Day on Saturday 15th November.  They have set themselves a target to break the previous year record for funds raised on the day with a number of school mufti days and a battle of the bands just a few of the activites planned so far.

Many thanks to our committee member Cody Phang for the many months of work and committment he has dedicated to relaunching our new look website. 

To those families who have previously stayed at Fiona Lodge and would like to contribute to our newly launched family album, please email your story and photos to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For peope out there on Facebook, we encourage you to become a fan of Fiona Lodge Ronald McDonald Family Retreat and join our group which will allow us to update you on what is happening and keep the message of the Family Retreat fresh in the minds of our many young supporters. 

With Christmas fast approaching I would like to take the opportunity to thank our ongoing sponsors. , Michael Skuse and his excellent team at LJ Hooker Bateman Bay for their attention to detail and friendly welcome to our guests, Mark Bellette from Tomakin Sports and Social Club, Murray from Ensign Linen for providing the linen for the apartments, the Innes Family Marinda Cruise, Sally and Casey Pady from Mogo Zoo, and the staff of Birdland.  

We also thank our patron Steve Larkam and his wife Jacqueline for their continued support of Fiona Lodge Family Retreat.   

We are excited to have approved our 600th family holiday at Fiona Lodge since we opened in 2003.   To the families who have stayed we thank them for their kind words left in the guest book, their thoughtful words are greatly appreciated by the committee and our community supporters.  We hope the holiday gave them a chance to relax, rejuvenate and take away with them some great fun-filled memories of their time together as a family.

Rachael Sweeney
Chair - Ronald McDonald Family Retreat Fiona Lodge

Spring 2008