I am going to try and do a blurb for every non-profit that we are involved in over the next several weeks. Today’s topic is the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Yesterday, we attended the annual “Christmas in Washington” production. This production has been going on for 30 years and is generally attended by the First Family. This year’s performers were Cee Lo Green, Victoria Justice, The Band Perry (yay!), Justin Bieber (the girl-child went wild), and Jennifer Hudson (who blew us away with her vocal talent). The event raises money for CNMC every year. The tremendously impressive thing about CNMC is its somewhat bifurcated mission. It accepts any pediatric patient, regardless of the child’s family’s ability to pay. In Washington, DC, where over 30% of the children live in poverty (defined as $22,000 for a family of 4), it is so important to have medical care available to the most vulnerable of our population. At the same time, Children’s is on the cutting edge of pediatric research in a variety of areas. Both these missions take an enormous amount of money to accomplish, and fundraisers such as “Christmas in Washington” are so helpful in meeting the needs of Children’s.
I am, of course, biased, as Jim is the Chair of the Board of Directors for Children’s. 🙂 That being said, for a children’s hospital to treat those in need with limited ability to pay and be on the cutting edge of pediatric research is unusual and an amazing accomplishment. You can find out more about Children’s at www.cnmc.org.