A Visit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Collegiate Leadership Conference 2011

This past July I had the pleasure of visiting St. Jude, in Memphis TN, which TriDelta adopted as its national philanthropic partner in 1999. Although the children of the hospital are experiencing the biggest challenge of their life, this is not apparent as you walk through the halls of St. Jude. Danny Thomas, the founder, pledged to make this one of the happiest places a sick child could turn to. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research centre where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay.

As you walk through St. Jude, you will find the halls painted bright with the colours of the seasons. The waiting rooms are filled with games for the children to play with. As you meet the dedicated staff at St. Jude, you feel as if it is one big family working toward this worthy cause, and that this is much more than just a job for them. This was shown through a story of a little boy who was going through chemo and had totally lost his appetite. The only thing he wanted was his grandmother’s macaroni and cheese. And so one of the chefs who worked in the cafeteria at St. Jude decided to call up the boy's grandmother to get her recipe. He made the little boy his mac and cheese and would bring it up to his room during his chemo treatments.

TriDelta was happy to announce their accomplishment of raising $10 million in 10 years in 2010, six years ahead of schedule, to name the Patient Care Floor in the Chili’s Care Centre at St.Jude. In July 2010 Tri Delta pledged an even more aggressive challenge to raise $15 million in 5 years to name the Specialty Clinic located in the Patient Care Centre, and we are well on our way. Research findings and information discovered at St. Jude are freely shared with doctors and scientists worldwide. St. Jude treats children from all 50 states and 70 countries. In 1962, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate for this once deadly disease is 94 percent thanks to the research and treatment protocols developed at St. Jude.

My trip to St. Jude was one of the most eye-opening and heart-warming experiences I’ve ever had. It made me develop a much greater appreciation for all the hard work TriDelta does internationally. I am so excited to see how much more our chapter can accomplish for St. Jude this year! 

Angie Celebre
Philanthropy Chair