SWIL Soldiers Present a Donation to Fund Raisers for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital – May 2010
The SWIL Soldiers donated $250 to Belleville-area high school students who held a Teeter-Totter-A-Thon fund raiser in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is located in Memphis, Tennessee. The students took turns on the Teeter-Totters, working in shifts over a 48 hour period and were sponsored by several organizations and individuals.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases. St. Jude was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas on the premise that “no child should die in the dawn of life.” Thomas named the hospital for Saint Jude Thaddeus, the Catholic patron saint of hospitals, desperate cases and lost causes. Thomas was a struggling young entertainer when he knelt in a Detroit church before a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus and asked the saint to “show me my way in life and I will build you a shrine.”
All medically eligible patients who are accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family’s ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric research center in the United States where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. In addition to providing medical services to eligible patients, St. Jude also assists families with transportation, lodging, and meals. Three separate specially-designed patient housing facilities—Grizzly House for short-term (up to two weeks), Ronald McDonald House for medium-term (two weeks to 3 months), and Target House for long-term (3 months or more)—provide housing for patients and up to three family members, with no cost to the patient. These policies, along with research expenses and other costs, cause the hospital to incur more than $2.4 million in operating costs each day. Around $180,000 is covered by patient insurance, the remaining $2.22 million/day is funded by charitable contributions.
