DURHAM - For the 25 or so families staying in the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, dinner on Jan. 5 was another much appreciated home-cooked meal provided by volunteers.

But for nearly two dozen employees from the town of Wendell, it was chance to give back.

“Every Christmas, our employees try to take on something to do for the public,” explained town clerk Jonnie Driver, who helped organize the event.

The town has sponsored an Angel Tree for children before, but employees wanted to do something different for 2011.

“This year, there was such a need everywhere, and this was such a worthy cause,” Driver said.

Ronald McDonald houses provide a comforting and inexpensive place for out-of-town parents to stay while their children receive medical care at places like Duke Children’s Hospital.

Driver added several of the town’s employees know families who have benefited from Ronald McDonald homes while their children were treated for cancer or other diseases.

Once Driver received agreement from her fellow employees in Wendell, she contacted the volunteer coordinator for the home in Durham and was given a date in January to stop by.

“They have a calendar on their website. We were looking in December, but couldn’t find a date that fit,” Driver said. “They fit us in the first day they could in January,” Driver said.

Wendell’s parks and recreation athletics director Kelley Connolly was busy chronicling the event with a camera that night. “It’s so awesome to be able to help out,” she said.

Tamah Hughes, who calls herself “the town IT person,” brought her 10-year-old daughter Marlea to assist. Hughes assembled 50 small salads, and then helped mix the cake. “I’ve just been jumping around” in the kitchen, she said.

Hughes said her family stayed in a similar facility near the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston when her mother was treated for cancer.

She said she hoped bringing Marlea to help out on a Thursday night would show her “it feels good to help other people.”

While most of the female employees baked potatoes, made macaroni and cheese and baked rolls in the home’s roomy kitchen, the men were out back grilling pork chops.

Police dispatcher Daryl Hales said he has assisted with fire and rescue fundraisers before, and worked with church members to help those in need.

Hales wanted to help people at the Ronald McDonald House because his brother’s family stayed there a few years ago when his newborn required medical treatment. “It’s the right thing to do, and it makes you grateful that your children are well,” he said.

Police Lt. Bobby Langston said once Driver brought up the idea of preparing a meal at the Ronald McDonald House, “everyone was all for it.”

“There were quite a few back in Wendell who would have loved to have come here, but somebody had to work,” Hales added.

The Drivers went meat shopping for the expedition, Carlton Driver said, and everyone else pitched in however they could, whether by donated mac and cheese or potatoes or supplying funds to purchase food and plates.

“It was a joint effort on everyone’s part,” Carlton Driver said.

Gary Cooper was one of the parents staying in the Ronald McDonald House the night the Wendell employees showed up. He was there with his son, Joshua, who had just been fitted for hearing aids and was preparing for a Friday MRI to make sure his cancer hadn’t returned.

The family lives in Fayetteville, and while they could have made the two-hour commute, it was easier to return to the Ronald McDonald House in Durham where they could relax and meet other people in similar situations, Cooper said.

The $10-a-night-stay helps financially, he added, but “more for us, it’s the fellowship: meeting people and sharing with people,” he said.

And, “Joshua gets to be out . . . and meet with other kids.”

The Ronald McDonald House in Durham is currently undergoing expansion and will soon be able to house 55 families instead of 29.