Children's Mercy Kansas City and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Team Up for a Big League Fan Challenge

For Release: October 22, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Which World Series baseball team fans have bigger hearts? Baseball fans step up to the plate and participate in a challenge for children’s health.

As the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants compete for the title of World Series Champion, Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford have teamed up for the Big League Fan Challenge, a (friendly) fundraising competition to see who can raise the most support for their local children’s hospital. Patients at both children’s hospitals love their local baseball teams, so we challenge fans to show their support of the Royals or Giants by making a donation in their team’s honor to one of our children’s hospitals.

Watch a special version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” created by patients and families at both hospitals at www.crowdrise.com/bigleaguefan. Patients cheer on their favorite baseball players, the same players who have cheered them up all season long with hospital visits and gift deliveries.

Donations for the Royals will go to the I Love Children’s Mercy fund. Meeting the goal of $25,000, fans will permanently honor their 2014 (hopefully World Series Champion) Royals with a plaque on the new I Love Children’s Mercy wall.

Donations for the Giants will benefit the Lucile Packard Children’s Fund, which supports the hospital’s greatest needs. When $25,000 is raised through the Big League Fan Challenge, a brick will be inscribed on the new pathway at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford with a message celebrating our 2014 Giants fans. To learn more, visit crowdrise.com/LPCHS.

Team votes and donations will close on Friday, October 31. Whichever team you’re rooting for, when fans support children’s health, we all win.

About Children’s Mercy

Children’s Mercy, located in Kansas City, Mo., is one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers. The 354-bed, not-for-profit hospital provides care for children from birth through the age of 21, and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals.” For the third time in a row, Children’s Mercy has achieved Magnet nursing designation, awarded to fewer than seven percent of all hospitals nationally, for excellence in quality care. Its faculty of 600 pediatricians and researchers across more than 40 subspecialties are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research, and educating the next generation of pediatric subspecialists. For more than a century, Children’s Mercy has provided the highest level of medical care to every child who passes through its doors, made possible through generous community support. For more information about Children’s Mercy and its research, visit childrensmercy.org. For breaking news and videos, follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford is the heart of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, and is one of the nation’s top hospitals for the care of children and expectant mothers. For a decade, we have received the highest specialty rankings of any Northern California children’s hospital, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospitals survey, and are the only hospital in Northern California to receive the national 2013 Leapfrog Group Top Children’s Hospital award for quality and patient care safety. Discover more at stanfordchildrens.org.

Authors

Contact:
Megan Alpers
Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
(408) 234-3906
megan.alpers@lpfch.org

Jessica M. Salazar
Children’s Mercy Kansas City
(816) 346-1346
jmsalazar@cmh.edu