Teens raise thousands of dollars each year to help babies and young patients at RiverBend
Submitted by Sherri Buri McDonald, PeaceHealth
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – After months of practice on skits and dance numbers, students are staging pageants at more than a dozen area high schools to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network
These students from 16 area high schools are participating in the Kids Helping Kids program. Together, they raise thousands of dollars each year for Children’s Miracle Network at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield. They have raised $6.3 million for our local Children’s Miracle Network since the first pageant was staged in the 1992-1993 school year.
“These enthusiastic, compassionate teens are the single-largest donor to our local Children’s Miracle Network,” said Alexa Sharps, pediatric program director of development for Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation. “The money they raise enables babies and kids in our region to get specialized treatment and services closer to home at RiverBend, instead of having to travel to Portland or San Francisco.”
Children’s Miracle Network is a Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation program. It helps fund services and treatments for sick and injured children at RiverBend. All funds raised by the pageants are donated to Children’s Miracle Network, which then gives 10 percent of the proceeds back to each school for student-health programs.
Sheldon High School in Eugene staged the first pageant – known as the “Mr. Irish” pageant–26 years ago. At first, young men were the contestants and young women were their managers. But now, many schools encourage a range of contestants, and the common thread is an entertaining night of skits, song and dance. These aren’t typical beauty or talent pageants. Contestants must wow the judges with their creativity, personality, scholarship and other attributes. A complete list of pageant dates and venues is available here.
In the months leading up to their shows, students in Kids Helping Kids have an opportunity to tour RiverBend’s pediatrics floor and neonatal intensive care unit.
“The visit is truly a life-changing experience for our high school contestants,”
said Lorri Hanson, co-advisor of Cottage Grove High School’s Lion Pride Pageant. “Students get a first-hand look at where our donations go and why we are raising money for this charity.”
The hospital tours inspire pageant contestants to work their hardest to raise money to help other kids. They also inspire younger students to get involved in Kids Helping Kids in their senior year.
Mikayla Baird, a junior at Cottage Grove High School, recently accompanied her classmates on the RiverBend tour as yearbook photographer. She isn’t a contestant now, “but I want to be next year,” she said. “It’s so important to help those kids in need.”
About PeaceHealth: PeaceHealth, based in Vancouver, Wash., is a not-for-profit Catholic health system offering care to communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. PeaceHealth has approximately 16,000 caregivers, a group practice with more than 900 providers and 10 medical centers serving both urban and rural communities throughout the Northwest. In 1890, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace founded what has become PeaceHealth. The Sisters shared expertise and transferred wisdom from one medical center to another, always finding the best way to serve the unmet need for healthcare in their communities. Today, PeaceHealth is the legacy of the founding Sisters and continues with a spirit of respect, stewardship, collaboration and social justice in fulfilling its Mission. Visit us online at peacehealth.org.
