Dallas, Texas February 22, 2012: Betty Schultz knows firsthand how fortunate our community is to have Children’s Medical Center right here in Dallas. Just hours after the birth of her second child, Sarah, Betty and her husband Brian found out that their daughter had a heart defect and she would need to have surgery very soon. Betty and Brian enlisted friends and family to help call specialists all over the country to determine the best place for Sarah’s treatment. To their surprise the answer was actually right here at home at Children’s Medical Center. As Betty says, “We were surprised. And we knew our friends didn’t know that we had this incredible teaching hospital right in our backyard.”
That was the impetus to start The Children’s Trust. After many meetings, the hospital’s development team connected the Schultzes with another like-minded couple, Sheila and Dave Beuerlein, and together they began planning for a new fund raising group in early 2002.
The Schultzes and the Beuerleins invited their friends to a party to learn more about Children’s and recruited more than 100 founding members, including Troy Aikman, who had built “Aikman’s End Zone” high-tech interactive play areas in a number of hospitals, with the first at Children’s Medical Center in 1996.
Since it’s inception, what the Beuerleins and the Schultzes felt the power of the Trust was the ability to pool the donations of individuals and couples to make a meaningful gift to the hospital. Along with other social opportunities, The Trust hosts the “Big Give” event every year, where members learn about specific hospital needs and then cast their vote to fund one of those needs. Over the years, equipment including the SonoSite Ultrasound System, a neonatal isolette for pediatric transport, a mobile electrophysiology machine for heart patients, Smart Cycler, and a mobile C-Arm and fluoroscopy table have been funded by the group, along with several program areas such as the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, the At-Risk Children Center and the Center for Pediatric Eating Disorders.
The organization has grown, and now, ten years later, includes nearly 500 members annually who have raised over $832,000 for the hospital. This year, The Children’s Trust is within reach of making a cumulative gift of $1 million dollars to Children’s as they celebrate their 10th Anniversary. Their membership event will be held on Thursday, February 23, at Park Place Motorcars, with Betty and Brian Schultz as the keynote speakers. Invitees will be asked to help make life better for children by becoming a member of the Trust and taking part in the Race to A Million campaign.
As for Betty, she is exceptionally proud of the Trust, but even more thrilled with her experience at Children’s. Sarah had her first open heart surgery when she was four months old. She had 4 total surgeries at Children’s by the time she was seven. Now, at eleven, she’s a healthy, vibrant eleven-year old and attending fifth grade at ESD. Sarah stays busy playing soccer, doing school work and hanging out with her three other siblings.
For additional information about the Children’s Trust, visit www.childrens.com/thechildrenstrust, or email thechildrenstrust@childrens.com.