McDonald’s Franchise Owners Ernest and Mary Redmond Use Their Position to Enhance Young Lives

McDonald’s franchisees Ernest and Mary Redmond, who own three McDonald’s restaurants in Houston with a fourth due in the fall, never ever imagined the tremendous spiritual gifts they’d be bestowed after becoming entrepreneurs.

“When I was growing up, I always aspired to be a businessman,” Ernest says. “… We have the opportunity to be a part of the guiding force for our young black people, but not just black [kids], but all young kids. …We not only offer these kids jobs, we guide them spiritually, financially and provide life skills.”

Mary Redmond concurred that the guidance she and her husband can offer young people is one of the greatest benefits of being a McDonald’s franchisee. “I … was able to work with so many nationalities of children … children [that come] from single-parent homes … children that need some type of solid foundation to guide them,” Mary says, adding, “[and] I have the opportunity to talk to them and mold some of these kids and change their perspective on life.”

Earnest left corporate America and joined McDonald’s 33 years ago with the specific intention of becoming a McDonald’s franchisee. “McDonald’s had a program … for corporate people that [allowed you to] apply for a store after 10 years,” he says.

His wife left her job as a toxicologist to join her husband’s at McDonald’s, calling their training system the best by far of any program she’d ever entered. “You had to learn all [the] disciplines within the corporation before they [would] even consider you for a McDonald’s store,” she says.

Earnest and Mary are going to dedicate their fourth store, which opens Oct. 14, to the public servants —firemen and police officers — who keep their stores and the overall community safe. That’s just one of the many community endeavors the Redmonds are involved in.