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Arkansas Children’s Announces Jonesboro Gifts of $2.5 Million to the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

September 24, 2019

Gifts support programs and expansion at ACH Jonesboro Clinic.

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

(Texarkana, Ark.) September 24, 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. 

The Yates and Hubbard family announced a historic gift of $1.25 million to Arkansas Children’s Dental Sealant program, the family’s largest gift to date. This leadership gift was made in honor of the late Jim Yates, patriarch of the Yates family and co-founder, along with his wife FaEllen Yates, of E-Z Mart Stores.  

This legacy gift was made by matriarch FaEllen Yates and the Yates Foundation that includes her daughters Stacy Yates and Sonja Yates Hubbard, Sonja’s husband Bob, and three grandchildren—Kenzie Floyd, Yates Floyd and Lauren Hubbard. 

“Thanks to the support of the Yates and Hubbard family, children who have not had dental services in the Southern and Southwest corner of the state will have access to dental sealant services and preventative oral healthcare,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s. “This historic gift helps us deliver on the promise of a healthier tomorrow for the children in Arkansas.”  

This gift will expand access to preventative oral healthcare for 17,000 children in the Southwest region of the state. This investment will provide preventative dental services and oral health education to children in South and Southwest Arkansas.  

“The Yates and Hubbard family has always been focused on helping others. Our family business was built on that principle,” said Sonja Yates Hubbard. “To invest in child health in the Southern region of Arkansas is an honor for our family to uphold. My father would be proud to know that we are continuing the family legacy of supporting the community.” 

Since 2009, the Dental Outreach program has provided 12,500 dental exams through four mobile dental clinics, screened 31,400 children and provided fluoride applications and applied 73,000 dental sealants.

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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