At the Belle Meade Country Club this week, members of the Belle Meade Barracudas swim team presented Monroe Carell Jr. (center) with a donation to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. (photo by Anne Rayner)
Belle Meade swim club splashes up funds for new children's hospital
Barracudas are defined in Webster's as "fierce" fish, but the Belle Meade Barracudas are more the friendly, giving kind.
The Belle Meade Country Club swim team presented Monroe Carell Jr. with a $5,708.86 donation this week to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Carell, chairman and chief executive officer of Central Parking Corp. and leader of the new children's hospital fund-raising campaign, has four grandchildren on the swim team. Two of the team members have battled leukemia at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
The children obtained sponsors for pledges and swam laps to raise money for the new hospital. They have made a pledge of $10,000.
"This gift is particularly satisfying to all of us close to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital," Carell told the group before accepting the check. "It's from young people who have worked so hard to get it. This hospital will always be yours. I hope you don't have to use it but it's there if you need it."
Ground was broken on May 15 for the facility, being constructed at the intersection of Capers and 22nd Avenues, near The Vanderbilt Clinic and across the street from the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. The $150 million facility is expected to be completed in 2003.