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Arkansas Children’s Announces $6 Million in New Gifts From Volunteers to the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

September 26, 2019

Arkansas Children’s announces $6 million in new gifts from volunteers to the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow.

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

(Little Rock, Ark.) September 26, 2019 – Arkansas Children’s continues its statewide public launch of the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow, a bold $250 million campaign designed to support the promise of unprecedented child health. Defined and delivered.

Arkansas Children’s three longstanding volunteer groups from across the state have committed $6 million in philanthropic support to the state’s only pediatric health system.

“Volunteers are interwoven into the Arkansas Children’s story from the very beginning,” said Fred Scarborough, chief development officer for Arkansas Children’s and president of Arkansas Children’s Foundation. “A concerned group of volunteers established Arkansas Children’s when we began as an orphanage more than 100 years ago to take care of the most vulnerable children. Today, there are literally thousands statewide of volunteers tirelessly sharing the mission of Arkansas Children’s and inspiring others to join as champions for children.”

Arkansas Children’s Hospital Auxiliary has committed new gifts of $3 million to support the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow. The ACH Auxiliary is a 501(c)(3) organization serving patients and families through fundraising and service projects. Since 1967, the Auxiliary has grown to nearly 550 members who support the hospital through many fundraising efforts including A la Carte, Miracle Ball, Race for a Healthier Tomorrow, the Playaway Gift Shop, the ACHiever Program and Holiday Card Project featuring artwork by Arkansas Children's patients.

Log A Load for Kids of Arkansas have committed new gifts of $1 million to the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow. Since 1993, Log A Load for Kids has created a lasting legacy at Arkansas Children’s through gifts totaling more than $10 million. Their gifts have funded Angel One Transport, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital emergency department, and most recently, two new endowed chairs advancing emergency medicine and the heart institute at Arkansas Children’s.

Circle of Friends (COF) volunteers from across the state have committed new gifts of $2 million in support of the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow. Established in 1983, COF is grass roots volunteer group who created a statewide network of friends, and to date, have raised more than $18 million for the children of Arkansas. 350 COF volunteers in 11 communities work to promote Arkansas Children’s throughout Arkansas, funding clinics, research, safety programs and expansion efforts throughout the state.

To learn more about becoming a volunteer, visit www.archildrens.org/giving.

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.

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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