STB-97-05
75th ANNIVERSARY SHRINERS HOSPITALS
This STB was prepared by:
The Public Relations Dept.
International Shrine Headquarters
Tampa, Florida
Major Celebrities & Sports Figures Lend
Support To Shriners Hospitals'
75th Anniversary
Over two dozen celebrities, a former U.S.
President, and the world's most recognizable
sports figure, Michael Jordan, are lending
their talents during 1997 to help Shriners
Hospitals for Children celebrate 75 years of
providing free medical care to children in
need.
As part of a year-long celebration, the
nation's largest pediatric orthopaedic hospital
system has enlisted the talents of Jordan, former President Gerald Ford, Burt Reynolds,
Emest Borgnine, Barbara Mandrell, Dick
Clark, Sandy Duncan and a host of other
celebrities and sports figures, as part of a
multi-faceted campaign.
The campaign is not only informing viewers about the unique charity, but is attempting
to locate more families with children who
need but cannot afford the type of specialized
medical care available, at no charge, in all 22
Shriners Hospitals in the United States,
Canada and Mexico. In the network, there are
18 orthopaedic hospitals, three Shriners
Burns Institutes, and one (the new Northem
Califomia Shriners Hospital in Sacramento
that opened in April 1997) that provides
orthopaedic, burn and spinal cord injury care.
Serving as the comerstone for the year's
activities was a first of its kind "untelethon,"
which, according to Imperial Potentate John
D. VerMaas, was a television special aimed
not at raising funds, but at locating even more
children that Shriners Hospitals can help.
To date, Shriners Hospitals have helped
over a half-million children and currently lists
more than 160,000 active patients. "Lots of
charities hold telethons to raise funds, but we
dubbed ours an 'untelethon,' since people
were not asked to call a toll-free number with
pledges or donations, but instead to call if
they knew of a child who could benefit from
treatment at a Shriners Hospital," VerMass
explained.
"Our whole purpose in having this TV special was to get families with kids who need
help in touch with the Shriners Hospital nearest to them," he said.
The one-hour special, hosted by actors Pat
Morita and Peter Graves, was taped at
EPCOT in Disney World, and was aired in
early April in 21 of the 22 television markets
in which Shriners Hospitals are located--
excluding only Mexico City, due to the lan-
guage difference. The 21 television markets
represented a potential audience of 21 million
TV households, and focused on helping people leam more about the Shriners Hospitals
system.
In addition to the television special,
Shriners Hospitals are launching two major
television and radio public service campaigns
this year, featuring celebrities Morgan
Fairchild, Loni Anderson, Dick Clark, Erik
Estrada, Charles Grodin, and Martin Sheen,
among others. A multi-part video news
release was produced and distributed, along
with an extensive international awareness
campaign, including such items as billboards,
bus cards, airport and mall dioramas, and promotion in movie theaters across North
America.
According to Shriners Hospitals Chairman
of the Board Everett M. Evans, "This is the
most comprehensive and extensive campaign
that we have ever undertaken, and even
though our hospital system's budget this year
will top $425 million, the entire tocus of the
year-long anniversary campaign is simply to
find more families with children who need
our help."
Why the Shriners Hospitals'
name change?
Less than a year age, during the Shrine's
122nd Imperial Council Session in New
Orleans, Shrine representatives voted to officially change the name of Shriners Hospitals
for Crippled Children to Shriners Hospitals
tor Children.
Representatives decided to remove the
word "crippled" from the organizations's corporate name in an effort to have the name better reflect the mission of Shriners Hospitals,
which have a 75-year hisitory ol providing
free, specialized medical care to children.
"When we opened the tirst Shriners
Hospital in 1922, polio was common and
most of our patients were children with polio.
The term 'crippled' was widely accepted to
describe their conditions," said Everett M.
Evans, chairman of the Board of Trustees of
Shriners Hospitals.
"But today, that term is not am accurate
description of either our patients or our misssion," he explained. "Since we opened the
Shriners Burns Institutes in the 1960s, we
have treated children with burn injuries. and
in our orthopaedic hospitals we treat some
problems that are not strictly orthopaedic.
With this change, we believe our corporate
name more accurately retlects the expansion
of services that we've added over the years."
Interesting facts & figures on
Shriners Hospitals
Since 1922, when the first Shriners
Hospital opened in Shreveport, La., the
"World's Greatest Philanthropy"--is the
world-renowned hospital system is known
today--has treated more than a half million
children who have gone on to lead successful
and happy lives.
Over three-quarters of a century, Shriners
Hospitals have spent more than $3.4 billion
operating their 22 Shriners Hospitals. During
that same period, construction and renovation
costs have totaled nearly $770 million.
The orthopaedic Shriners Hospitals are
expertly staffed and equipped to treat
orthopaedic disorders such as curvature of the
spine (scoliosis), brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta), hand and back problems,
club foot, limb deficiencies, and growth problems.
The Shriners Burns Institutes, internationally recognized as pioneers in burn treatment,
were the first burns hospitals in America dedicated solely to the treatment of children with
severe burns.
Another area of need the Shrine took an
interest in a number of years ago is treating
children with spinal cord injuries. Today, the
Chicago, Philadelphia, and new Northern
California Shriners Hospitals are the only
national network offering spinal cord injury
care to children and adolescents.
One of the extraordinary aspects of
Shriners Hospitals is that all medical services
they provide are totally without charge, and
no insurance or U.S. government funds (federal, state or local) are sought or accepted for
any of the medical care or services Shriners
Hospitals offer.
Remarkable, too, is that Shriners Hospitals
presently make the single largest contribution, on a continuing basis, to the care of disabled children of any organization or private
healthcare system in the United States.
For 75 years, Shriners Hospitals have combined to compile a number of patient statistics, including the following:
ù 559,009 operations performed
ù 6.7 million X-rays taken
ù 791,978 braces and prostheses applied
ù 5 million outpatient and outreach clinic
visits
ù 11.3 million physical therapy treatments
With Shriners Hospitals approving 24,979
new applications for treatment during 1996,
Shriners Hospitals began 1997 with an
active patient roster of 162,126.
1997 budget tops
$1.16 million per day
For the current year, the overall budget tor
the 22 Shriners Hospitals totals $425 mil-
lion--nearly $1.16 million per day to oper-
ate Shriners Hospitals, conduct research and
continue the ambitious reconstruction pro-
gram begun in the early 1980s.
Included in the $425 million budget is
$359 million allocated for operating
expenses (including $21 million for
research) and $66 million for buildings and
equipment expenditures.
Nearly 25 years ago, Shriners Hospitals
Boards of Directors and Trustees saw the
need for an aggressive rebuilding program if
the hospitals were to continue otfering the
most advanced orthopaedic and burn care
well into the 21st century.
That program ii coming to a close, with
just two hospitals still under construction--
the Philadelphia Hospital, which is slated to
be completed late this year, and the Shriners
Burns Institute in Boston, which will be the
last of the Shriners Hospitals to be completed--in late spring 1998.
The new Northern California Hospital,
which replaced the San Francisco Shriners
Hospital, is now the Shrine's largest, as well
as the first to incorporate all four specialties
for which Shriners Hospitals are noted:
pediatric orthopaedics, spinal cord injuries,
acute burns, and research. With a total of 80
beds, 50 are for othopaedic care, including
spinal cord injuries, and 30 for burn care.
This new, eight-story, state-of-the-art facility serves as the Shrine's flagship hospital
and its primary burns center in the west,
reducing the need for severely burned chil-
dren to travel across the country to receive
care at one of the other three Shriners Burns
Institutes.
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