Junior League gives $2 million for new hospital
The Junior League of Nashville will contribute $2 million toward the proposed new Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, the league announced last week.
The grant is the first major funding announced for construction of the new hospital, which will consolidate all of Vanderbilt's health services for children under one roof on the medical center campus.
The grant will be earmarked to defray costs of constructing and operating the new Junior League Home in the new facility, which is expected to be open by 2001.
"Our support of the new, free-standing Vanderbilt Children's Hospital provides the Junior League an opportunity to recommit ourselves to children's health and the well-being of our community," said Jane Berry Jacques, president of the Junior League of Nashville.
In 1971, the Junior League of Nashville moved its Home for Crippled Children to the then-new Children's Regional Medical Center, predecessor to VCH.
Since that time, the Junior League has contributed more than $7 million to cover expenses associated with the home and to establish other VCH programs including The Lung Center, the Respite Care Program and the Junior League Center for Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities of Children.
"The Junior League of Nashville has always been the heart and soul of services to children," said Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs.
"From the inception of the Junior League Home for Crippled Children in 1924, this corps of dedicated volunteers has been the conscience of our community in serving children. I am enormously pleased that they are the lead supporter for our free-standing Children's Hospital."
The grant will be provided through a trust fund established in 1941 to support the operation of the Home for Crippled Children. The Junior League manages the trust and each year distributes funds designated exclusively to support the work of the home.