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Arkansas Children’s Announces $500,000 Gift to Support The Campaign for a Heathier Tomorrow

September 23, 2019

Gift from Belinda Shults enhances injury prevention endowed chair at Arkansas Children’s.

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

(Little Rock, Ark.) September 23, 2019 – Arkansas Children’s Foundation Board member Belinda Shults has given an additional $500,000 to the Belinda H. and Robert L. Shults Endowed Chair in Injury Prevention at Arkansas Children’s. This endowment supports the continued work of the Arkansas Children’s Injury Prevention Center through education and advocacy for the safety of children across Arkansas.

“Belinda has a rich history of service to Arkansas Children’s. Her leadership as foundation board member and past president of the ACH Auxiliary are just two examples,” said Fred Scarborough, chief development officer for Arkansas Children’s and president of Arkansas Children’s Foundation. “Belinda is a stalwart advocate for the work of the injury prevention center. She’s made herself a student of the process–becoming informed and engaged as a leading champion for children through injury prevention.”

Endowed chairs provide Arkansas Children’s the ability to recruit top leaders in the medical field who can provide the best care for patients. An endowed chair remains one of the highest honors Arkansas Children’s can bestow on its most distinguished physicians. Those named to a chair are among the most highly regarded scientists, practitioners and professors in their fields.

“Supporting Arkansas Children’s is one of the best investments one can make,” said Belinda Shults. “I’m proud to know this gift will support the mission of Arkansas Children’s in perpetuity.”

Since 2015, the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow has secured more than $200 million in gifts towards a $250 million investment to deliver on our promise of unprecedented child health for children in Arkansas. This gift listed above is included in that total.

Arkansas Children’s Foundation board chair, Charlie Whiteside and his wife Cappy are the 2019 chairs for The Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow.

Arkansas Children’s invites you to be a champion for children in our state and make a gift to support statewide initiatives. Your generous support helps deliver on the promise of a healthier tomorrow for the children of Arkansas. Join us and make your gift today at www.archildrens.org/giving or by calling 888-880-7491.

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

By most national measures, Arkansas is one of the least healthy states ranking 40 out of 50 states in child health and well-being. Arkansas Children’s envisions a healthier tomorrow for all 710,000 children in Arkansas—for both our patients and the children who will never walk through the doors of Arkansas Children’s.

Since 2015, The Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow has secured more than $200 million in gifts towards a $250 million goal:

  • In 2015, Arkansas Children’s invested in two new 76-D Sikorsky Angel One Helicopters with the capabilities to reach a child anywhere in the state in 55 minutes. Since 1978, the Angel One Transport team has transported the most critically ill and injured patients to Arkansas Children’s and established a statewide network of care for children in Arkansas.
  • Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach programs are providing care to children across the state. Four, full-service mobile dental vans serve children in need of root canals, cavity fillings, extractions and crowns. School-based programs provide oral health education, dental sealants and screenings to more than 8,000 students annually. To date, the mobile dental vans and the dental sealant program have provided $13 million in preventive oral health services for children since 2009.
  • Arkansas Children’s Hospital has the state’s only level IV NICU. In 2016, ACH announced the creation of a Nursery Alliance to support hospitals around the state to provide children the care they need close to home. Since the program’s inception, the nursery alliance has established partnerships with Conway Regional in Conway, CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs, Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado and Ashley County Medical in Crossett.
  • In 2016, Arkansas Children’s established The David M. Clark Center for Safe and Healthy Children, a place dedicated to the care and treatment of neglected and abused children and their families. The Center is a single, safe place for children to receive medical, psychological and social health services and provides support by providing outpatient medical evaluations for children Rice Medical Clinic, Family Treatment Program and Team for Children at Risk.
  • In 2017, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Southwest Little Rock Clinic opened. Staffed with bilingual physicians and nurses, the clinic provides general pediatric and preventative care to families in the region. Arkansas Children’s Hospital clinics in Jonesboro and West Little Rock also provide primary care to children in the state.
  • In 2018 Arkansas Children’s Northwest became one of the nation’s newest children’s hospitals. Located in Springdale, Arkansas Children’s Northwest provides more than 20 subspecialty areas and a general pediatric clinic. In 2015, Arkansas Children’s announced the expansion of services in Northwest Arkansas to establish a 336,000 square feet hospital, Arkansas Children’s Northwest, located in Springdale. More than 14,000 gifts were made and $81 million in philanthropy supported the building of ACNW.

About Arkansas Children’s

Arkansas Children's, Inc. is the only healthcare system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 710,000 children, giving the organization a unique ability to shape the landscape of pediatric care in Arkansas and transform the health of children throughout the region. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons; and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Additionally, ACH is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in five pediatric subspecialties (2019-2020): Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the Northwest Arkansas region, opened in Springdale in early 2018. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and Northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can fundamentally transform the health of children in Arkansas and beyond. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

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