St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee)

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1996, Peter Doherty, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was corecipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work related to how the immune system kills virus-infected cells.

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History

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 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.” Thomas's prayer was answered, and he soon moved his family to Chicago to pursue career offers. In 1957, Thomas founded the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), which helped him realize his dream. ALSAC is the fundraising organization of St. Jude. Since St. Jude opened its doors in 1962, ALSAC has had the responsibility of raising the necessary funds to keep the hospital open.

The Hospital

Discoveries at St. Jude have completely changed how doctors treat children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses. Since St. Jude was established, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer, has increased from 4 percent in 1962 to 94 percent today. St. Jude has treated children from across the United States and from more than 70 countries. Doctors across the world consult with St. Jude on their toughest cases. Also, St. Jude has an International Outreach Program to improve the survival rates of children with catastrophic illnesses worldwide through the transfer of knowledge, technology and organizational skills.

Funding

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 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 $1.5 million in operating costs each day. Around $180,000 is covered by patient insurance, the remaining $1.34M/day is funded by charitable contributions.^[1]

To cover these costs, ALSAC conducts many fund-raising events and activities. The Stanford St. Jude Championship, a PGA Tour event, is one of the most visible fund-raising events for the hospital. Other fund-raising programs include the St. Jude Math-A-Thon®, Up 'til Dawn®, direct mailings, radiothons and television marketing.

St. Jude also has a merchandise catalog called the Hope Catalog. The catalog contains everything from shirts to office items, and from patient art to "Give Thanks" wristbands.

One of the hospital's most recent and successful fund-raising efforts has been the Dream Home Giveaway®. The giveaway allows contest entrants to reserve tickets for $100 each to qualify to win homes valued up to $720,000. The Dream Home Giveaway, one of the largest national fund-raising programs, is conducted in cities across the United States.

In November of 2004, St. Jude launched its inaugural Thanks and Giving campaign which encourages consumers to help raise funds at participating retailers by adding a donation at checkout or by purchasing specialty items to benefit St. Jude. The campaign is supported by network television spots, advertisements in major publications, interactive marketing on Yahoo! and a movie trailer that runs on 20,000 screens nationwide. Corporations such as Target, Domino’s Pizza, the Williams-Sonoma family of brands, CVS/pharmacy, Kmart, Kay Jewelers, 7-Eleven, Inc., American Airlines, American Kiosk Management, AutoZone, BJ’s Wholesale, Brooks Brothers, Busch Gardens, Casual Male XL, Catherines, Club Libby Lu, The Coffee Beanery, Diane von Furstenberg, Dollar General, Easy Spirit, General Nutrition Centers, Gymboree, Home Shopping Network, J. P. Morgan Chase, Marshalls, The Melting Pot, Memphis Grizzlies (NBA), Nine West, Rochester, Sag Harbor, Saks Fifth Avenue, SeaWorld, St. Louis Rams (NFL), West Elm, Westfield Shoppingtowns, Yahoo! give customers a host of opportunities to support St. Jude.

St. Jude has been named one of two International Philanthropic Projects of Epsilon Sigma Alpha International, a women's service sorority. As of July 2006, ESA has raised more than $100 million for St. Jude.

At various college campuses, student organizations, including Fraternities and Sororities raise funds in a program called Up 'til Dawn^[2]

For the past five years, 83.7% of every dollar received by St. Jude has gone to the current or future needs of St. Jude. As of 2006, for the past two years 47% of program expenses have gone to patient care and 41% to research.^[1]

In 1999 Delta Delta Delta, ΔΔΔ, formed a partnership with St. Jude, which more focused TriDelta's philanthropic scope. Currently, TriDelta supports St. Jude nationally, as well as children's cancer charities at a local level. TriDelta donated the Teen Room within St. Jude, a room especially for teenage patients to relax and spend time with each other. This room is "off-limits" to small children and adults. Currently, TriDelta is committed to a 10 in 10 campaign, which is aimed at raising money for The Chili's Care Center/ TriDelta Patient Care Floor. This new floor will be located in the new building of St. Jude and will be used for patient treatment and brain tumor research.

In 2002, another dream of Danny Thomas became a reality when the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon was established in Beirut on April 12, 2002. The center is an affiliate of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and works in association with the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).^[3]

References

See also

• The Cure4Kids Global Education and Collaboration Network

Coordinates: 35°09′09″N 90°02′40″W / 35.15236, -90.04456