CMA Entertainer of the Year nominees Rascal Flatts donated $817,000 in proceeds from Friday night’s sold-out Gaylord Entertainment Center concert in Nashville to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The donation is the largest fund-raising event ever for the hospital, surpassing Rascal Flatts’ $600,000 donation from last year’s inaugural event.
Midway through Rascal Flatts’ show, the group invited Harry Jacobson, M.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs at
Vanderbilt
University
Medical
Center, and Jim Shmerling, CEO of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, onto the stage for the official check presentation. Jacobson and Shmerling thanked the group for their continued support to the hospital and lead singer Gary LeVox thanked all the fans in attendance, saying “thank you for helping us help the kids.”
“Gary, Jay and Joe Don are gifted musicians as well as model ambassadors for VCH,” Shmerling said. “We are so grateful they have chosen to share their musical talents as well as their own personal commitment to the children treated at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Each of the Rascal Flatts is a very special individual.”
LeVox also told a story about the group’s recent trip to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital where they learned the night before their visit that 13 children had to spend the night in an observation unit in the emergency department because all the regular hospital rooms were full. So he pleaded to the audience to continue their local support for such a deserving cause… “so that each child who needs one, can have a room of their own.”
Rascal Flatts would like to thank Disney, Lyric Street Records and the
William
Morris
Agency for their support in the donation total.
Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital
Contact:
Carole Bartoo, 322-4747
Or Jessie Schmidt, Schmidt Relations 846-3878