Foundation News &
Events:
RED, WHITE, AND
BABY BLUE"
-- June 26, 2009
Presented By:
We are pleased to host the 5th Annual "Red,
White, and Baby Blue" fundraiser. The event will be held on Friday,
June 26 from 7-10 pm at the Garden Room on Dickson Street in
Fayetteville (next to the former Ozark Mountain Smokehouse).
Tickets are $25 each and may be purchased
online (see below), at Everett Maxey in Bentonville, at Guest Services
in the NWA Mall in Fayetteville or by calling Mitzi at 479-466-6103.
Tickets purchased online will be held at the
door in the ticket purchaser's name the evening of the event.
We will update guests on
Foundation happenings as well as hear from Martha Hall from Arkansas
Children's Hospital. It's been an excellent year and we hope
the event will help this year be an even better one!
The event will include food, beverages, and
live music as well as a silent auction including 2 fabulous trips, fun
kids' parties, and a unique selection of special interest packages.
You don't want to
miss our live music this year, Fayetteville favorite and award winning
band, Leah & and the Mojo Doctors!
Foundation merchandise, including newly
designed t-shirts, will be available for purchase.
We are currently looking for event sponsors,
both cash and in-kind, so please contact us if you would like to
help in that way. Click
HERE for the
Sponsorship Agreement which lists the sponsorship levels and benefits. If your company, or someone you know, has an
auction item to donate please let us know by emailing us at
info@jacksongraves.org.
We hope you will join us for this year's
Red, White & Baby Blue!
Silver Sponsor:
Larry
Bittle Insurance Agency
Media Sponsors:
Table Sponsors:
Woody Bassett
Bledsoe Family
Garrison Asset Management
Remington Products
Foundation Announces $125,000 Donation to Arkansas Children's
Hospital
The Jackson L.
Graves Foundation has announced a donation of $125,000 to Arkansas
Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Mitzi
Traxson, Managing Director of the Foundation, stated that the donation
will be utilized in the NICU for
the Jackson Lee Graves Sibling Playroom and for the Jackson Lee Graves
Room, which will be a private family transitional care room for use by
long term infant patients and their families. The private rooms at the
NICU will be primarily for infants needing
long term, complex care, providing personal space for the patient and
family and allowing a family to stay with their baby.
“It is the hope of
the Jackson L. Graves Foundation that this funding will continue the
‘baby steps’ we are making toward truly innovative specialty neonatal
intensive care for sick babies like Jackson ,” said Angie Graves of Fayetteville. “This
funding opportunity will allow us to make significant progress toward
one of our primary goals for the Foundation, and we are extremely
excited to see this project get started.” Graves and her husband, James,
are the founders of the JLG Foundation and the parents of Foundation
inspiration, Jackson Graves.
“James
and Angie, through their Foundation, have been wonderful friends to our
NICU since Jackson’s death. Their heartfelt gifts inspire our staff,
our physicians and other donors. We are truly thankful for their
support and vision as we improve our care of critically ill neonatal
infants,” said John Bel, President of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Foundation.
The JLG Foundation
is a charitable organization dedicated to improving care for infants in
need of complex medical attention and to providing important support
resources to families of those patients. In the three years since its
inception, the Foundation has agreed to donations of money and goods for
programs supporting infant and toddler patients and their families
totaling nearly $200,000.
Due to the nature of
most infants requiring intensive care, NICU's are primarily geared to
short stays. Babies with complex, long-term medical conditions and
surgical needs make up a smaller percentage of the overall NICU
population. The mission of the foundation is to provide funding for support services
for the families of these infants, and for the creation of special care
for these long term babies, with quieter areas, smaller doctor/patient
ratios, a stable set of primary care nurses and doctors dedicated to
their specialized care, and equipment geared toward their growing
bodies.
FOUNDATION FUNDS $30,000 PROJECT FOR ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
We are very excited to announce that the Foundation
recently added an additional $15,000 to funds it previously donated to
Arkansas Children’s Hospital for the purchase of state-of-the-art
communication devices. The devices will eliminate the need for noisy
intercoms and phones in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), by
providing hands free, private voice communication between NICU medical
personnel.
The funding of the Vocera Communication System
marks the Foundation’s largest impact project to date. We are thrilled
to be making such a tangible difference in the day to day operations of
the NICU!
As NICU nurse Audra Hutchins explains, “The
intercom system we currently have is so frustrating-not just for the
secretaries and the nurses -but for the parents and visitors as well.
The secretary will frequently have to try the intercom at least twice
before the nurses can hear them, and vice versa.”
Dana Fugitt, Assistant Director of the NICU, adds,
"The implementation of the Vocera system will be a great step taken in
our attempt to make things more comfortable for not only the babies, but
the families. One of the most frequently mentioned negative aspects of
an NICU is the noise level. Anything we can do to help lessen that
stressor for both the families and the babies is just another thing we
can control in a world of many uncontrollable stressors."
Not only will the devices improve noise levels, but
according to Dr. Robert Lyle, NICU Co-Medical Director, the system will
“improve the timeliness of care leading to better outcomes for our
babies” which has become an additional necessity due to the constant
expansion of the NICU. He adds, “We are certainly most excited to hear
that the Jackson Graves Foundation is funding the acquisition of the
Vocera communication devices for the NICU staff at Arkansas Children’s
Hospital. This gracious financial support is substantial and we greatly
appreciate the passion of the Foundation for our mission and the hard
work and effort to raise these funds.”
We could not have made this gift without the generous support of our
donors. If you would like more information about how you can help
fund future projects, please see our
"How You Can Help"
page or contact the Foundation at
info@jacksongraves.org.
Buy A Foundation Ballcap And Bumper Sticker
The Foundation has new ballcaps and static cling bumper stickers featuring the Foundation logo. The hats are khaki colored with the green emblem of the Foundation and the name of the Foundation in black, all embroidered on the hat. The Foundation also continues to have silicone armbands and Houndstooth Clothing cotton T-shirts, both with the phrase “Jackson 's Angels,” on them. The armbands are baby blue, and are much like the Lance Armstrong yellow arm bracelets. The T-shirts are gray with the Foundation colors on them, and they also have the "Memories to Magic" slogan on the back. Contact us now, either by email at info@jacksongraves.org or by telephone at 479-466-8339, to place your order. The armbands are five dollars each; t-shirts are ten dollars; hats are twelve dollars. All proceeds will go to the Foundation for its projects.
Electronic Donation/Payment Option
The Foundation can now accept online donations by credit card! Just
go to the "How You Can
Help" page and click the "Make a Donation" button
in the Giving section. You will
be taken to the PayPal website where you will be able to make a secure
online donation using your credit card. A PayPal account is not
needed.
We are now able to offer an automatic draft of your bank account.
All you have to do is provide us with your banking information, an
amount, and how often you'd like to donate and we'll get it set up.
Please contact the Foundation for more information or to take
advantage of this convenient option.
If you have any questions about making a
donation electronically, just email us at info@jacksongraves.org to let us know, and we will
happily answer your questions.
Stay tuned. More to come . . . |
