Miller Children’s Hospital Expansion Project Building for Children:
Heroes Helping Heroes

STAFF REPORT

LONG BEACH — The Memorial Medical Center Foundation (MMCF) brought the beach to Miller Children’s Hospital on January 26th in celebration of the receipt of a pace-setting gift towards the Miller Children’s Hospital expansion project from the Long Beach-based Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation. The Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation is focused on children and their health care needs within the Greater Long Beach community. The substantial gift jumpstarts the hospital’s capital campaign — Building for Children: Heroes Helping Heroes.

Photos by Zion Publishing

HARD HAT tour at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach: Architech Damon Barda, center, and project manager Vernon Southerland, right, guide visitors through the 124,000 sq.ft. in-patient pavilion slated to open in l;ate 2009. The hospital hosted a public event to kick-off its capital fundraising campaign, “Building for Children: Heroes Helping Heroes,” and to celebrate recent donations, including a $5 million gift from the Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation. Attendees had the opportunity to go on “hard hat” tours of the expansion project and visit booths that showcased many of the innovative features of the new inpatient pavilion.

Highlighting the event were: building of a sand castle replica of the new Miller Children’s in-patient pavilion by sand castle artist, Greg LeBon, AIA Master Sand Sculptor; patients “touring” the different themed floors of the new pavilion: under the Sea, Seashore, Garden and City; hard hat tours of the new Miller Pavilion expansion site; educational activities about the children’s expansion project; lots of fun, and the presentation of the fundraising campaign.

ON-GOING CONSTRUCTION of the new four-story, 124,000 sq.ft. addition is positioned adjacent to the hospital’s current facility. When operational in late 2009, the new in-patient pavilion will feature the region’s only pediatric imaging and surgical center.

The on-going construction of the four- story (one level below, three levels above ground), 124,000 sq.ft. addition sits adjacent to the hospital’s current building along the Atlantic Avenue side of the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center/Miller Children’s Hospital campus. When completed, the new inpatient pavilion will include a state-of-the-art pediatric imaging center, the region’s only pediatric surgery center, additional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit beds, a family resource center, gift shop, and a patients’ playroom.

DYLAN, 2, and mom Yvette Rowe, show baby pictures to event attendees, as Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse, Gayle King, RN, demonstrates the latest in NICU technology. Dylan and his twin sister Madison were born prematurely at Miller Children’s Hospital at only 31 weeks.

At Miller Children’s all of the young patients are regarded as heroes. And the families of these children, their doctors, nurses and everyone else who support them, including the philanthropic community, are heroes. And so, their $24-million capital campaign is about Building for Children: Heroes Helping Heroes. Many individuals, families, corporations and private foundations have stepped forward, thus far adding their support to the campaign.

Join the effort and become a hero yourself. Every gift is appreciated and will go towards providing excellence in health care for the children right here in our community. Contact MMCF at (562) 933-4483 or visit www.lbmmcf.org for more information.