By Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

By now, I’m sure that most of you have realized that Le Bonheur Children’s is opening a new hospital.  As a matter of fact, today, June 15, 2010, is the hospital’s 58^th birthday and the day of the grand opening of the new building.  The level of excitement around here is through the roof, with good reason.

Now, it’s easy to simply focus on today (being the grand opening and all).  However, yesterday was a big day in the hospital’s celebration.  Since, there is so much to talk about, I thought I would let you know a little about all of the happenings.

Yesterday was a tremendously special day for many of the Le Bonheur associates.  The celebration began with the consecration of the new building.  During the ceremony, the new hospital received blessings from numerous religious leaders of many different faith traditions.  Since today’s grand opening is a community celebration, the consecration was a nice opportunity for the Le Bonheur associates to celebrate the new hospital.

After that, the building was open to our associate for tours.  For many of the associates, this was the first chance they have gotten to see the interior of the new building.  It was also the first peek at all of the artwork in the new building.  The best way I can describe the atmosphere was like the realization of a promise.

Now, the excitement didn’t stop there.  In fact, there was a live television special on WREG last night.  If you missed it, there were some great stories shared and some wonderful interviews.  Some of the guest interviews included Patti Reed (Family Partner Council), Catie Fisher (Teen Advisory Council), and Madeline Flack (patient) and, her father, Tim Flack (Family Partners Council).

Finally, there was the ever-important parade practice.  That’s right, we did in practice the parade.  Let’s face it, how often does a children’s hospital get to do a parade?  So, we didn’t want to get it just ‘right’; we wanted to get it perfect.  So, we had various floats, banner groups, performers, and many others come together and run through the parade.

Overall, it was a great day of celebration.  The most exciting part is that we get to share it with everyone today.  By the way, if you can’t make it for the grand opening, you can always watch it live on WMC-TV.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that yesterday was ridiculously hot and humid?