Robin’s Breakfast Club Guys

She attends to their health care needs every morning—at McDonald’s

Serving a cup of care

Robin Koch, R.N., brings her health care experience to the table when she meets (standing l-r) Carl Silfies, Louis Knappenberger, Walter Davies and (sitting l-r) Frank Pfeiffer and Philip Zeiser every morning at the Walnutport McDonald's.

The cold morning air hits Robin Koch, R.N., as she opens the door to begin another day. Even though the sun has not yet touched the horizon and she has more than an hour before her shift begins at LVH–17th and Chew’s Center for Healthy Aging, she gets behind the wheel of her car and is on her way. With the cake she baked the night before safely stored on the passenger’s seat, Koch arrives at her destination—the Walnutport McDonald’s.

Koch is not greeted with awkward stares as she opens the restaurant door with cake in hand. Instead, the McDonald’s staff and a group of 10 elderly men greet her with effervescent smiles. Returning their smiles with warm wishes of her own, Koch presents the sweet treat to one of the men. He’s celebrating a birthday today. Over coffee, the men catch up on the daily news of a small town and take turns discussing their health-related questions with Koch.

For the last six years, this is where Koch begins her day. “One morning, I stopped in for a cup of ice and one of the men began a conversation with me,” Koch recalls. “He introduced me to his friends, and I liked them so much, I decided to come back the next day.”

The group of men, self-titled “The Northern Lehigh Mature Gentlemen’s Breakfast Club,” has been welcoming Koch every morning, ever since. “Her smile makes our day,” says Frank Pfeiffer, the 83-year-old who first talked to Koch six years ago. “Plus, she’s become our unofficial nurse caretaker.”

In addition to being the club’s official baker, Koch listens to their personal and health-related problems, and shares her expert advice. “If one of us is ill, Robin’s been known to visit at home or in the hospital,” 83-year-old Philip Zeiser says. “Every year, she makes sure we all get a flu shot. She guides all our health care needs.”

The McDonald’s staff even benefits from Koch’s generosity. She helped one single parent buy school supplies and Christmas gifts for her children. When another staff member’s car was stolen around the holidays, Robin lent her car to the family so they could get their Christmas shopping done.

Koch says she’s doing nothing more than practicing what she believes—that all people should be treated with wholehearted respect. “I embrace The Golden Rule philosophy,” she says. “If I can make things easier for others or lighten their load, I try to do it.”

It’s why she drops off prescriptions for patients who live near her so they don’t have to go out themselves. It’s why she checks on patients who live alone and spends time with them so they’re not lonely. It’s also why she was the recipient of the 2006 Friends of Nursing Fleming Nursing Caring Award.

But it’s more than a philosophy that attracts Koch to the fast-food restaurant every morning. It’s the genuine relationship she’s developed with every member of the breakfast club that keeps her coming back. “I love these guys,” she says. “When I’m on vacation and I don’t go, I miss them.”

To the “mature gentlemen,” the feeling’s mutual.

“She’s like a daughter to us,” Pfeiffer says. “If all Lehigh Valley Hospital nurses are like Robin, it is an awesome organization. We’re blessed to have her in our corner.”

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