by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

As our week long celebration of the Grand Opening of Le Bonheur Children's begins to wind down, I thought I would share one more surprise with you.  One Tuesday, we had several celebrities meet all in one area.  Roscoe Orman and Sonia Manzano, who play Gordon and Maria on Sesame Street, were our emcees during the grand opening parade.  Well, Memphis' own, Deidra Shores, winner of the Today Show's Kid Reporter Contest, sat down to interview Roscoe and Sonia in Studio 8.

by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

We've had a lot of great experiences during the Grand Opening celebration of the new Le Bonheur Chidlren's.  I thought I would share one of my favorites, walking in the parade with the Teen Advisory Council.  So, in order to give the full effect, here is a point of view perspective of the Teen Council:

by Renee Dominguez
Parent and Family Partners Council member

Amazing, inspiring, history making, what other words can describe yesterday’s grand opening of the new Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital?

Such a long awaited and highly anticipated day has finally come and gone and we were so thrilled to play a part in the event. Yes it was HOT and that was tough, particularly for some of the more medically fragile children in our group. But what a testimonial that even those families felt it was important to be present on such a historic occasion.  We all have so much vested in this new hospital. This is the realization of the hours we spent at our children’s bedsides, learning the hard way what worked and what frustrated us as a family and as a patient.

As I walked to the entrance of the new hospital I reflected on what my life as a mother would have been like without the services of Le Bonheur. Would one of the other local hospital’s been able to save Grant’s life when he was just 18 months old? Do any of the other hospitals have the top notch Neurosciences unit that has been such a life line for us with William? Would Phillip remember his hospital stay with such good memories if it had been somewhere else?

I don’t know what kind of care my boys would have received at one of the other hospitals, I only know that LeBonheur has been a blessing to our family. The people of LeBonheur has kept my family whole over these past 10 years that we have been visiting them. The thought that the new facility will allow other families to receive an even higher level of care is so uplifting.

We were truly blessed to participate in the grand opening. I will never forget seeing William pull down that ribbon opening the very doors that we will continue to walk through as we try to control his epilepsy. We are so thankful for the chance to have input in the plans, services and design of the new facility. It surpassed our expectations. My boys were thrilled to know that they were among the crowd that welcomed the new hospital. They will be talking about this for years.

This was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity and it will never be forgotten.

About the author:  Renee is the mother of three boys and has been an active member of the Family Partners Council for several years now.  She has been active in Project DOCC and other family centered care improvements.  Most recently, she helped celebrate the grand opening of the new Le Bonheur, and was a participant in the parade.

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?

by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

As hard as it is for me to believe, there is only one week until the grand opening of the new Le Bonheur Children’s.  That’s right, June 15, 2010 is just around the corner, and what an exciting time.  Not only will it be the day of the grand opening, but it’s also Le Bonheur Children’s 58 birthday.  So, we have two reasons to celebrate.

It’s been a lot of work to get to this point, but it has all been worth it.  The new hospital is simply amazing, and will have a big reach in helping children and their families.  Needless to say, there is a great deal of excitement and happenings surrounding the big day.  I thought I would highlight three big events that are part of the celebration.

• WREG (Channel 3) Television Special about Le Bonheur:  This television special will broadcast on Monday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m.  It will beaming live from the new Emergency Department.  The focus will be on the history and impact of Le Bonheur, both currently and in the new facility.  I will let this detail slip, there will be an interview with one of the Teen Advisory Council members.
• THE Parade/Grand Opening:  June 15 is the big day, and there will be a lot of excitement.  The fun kicks off at 10:00 a.m. with a parade featuring floats, groups, and much more.  You can join the fun first hand at Le Bonheur, as the parade comes down Dunlap Street.  However, if you can make it, have no fear.  Set your DVR to record because WMCTV (Channel 5) will be broadcasting the events live.  Oh, did I mention that Gordon and Maria from Sesame Street emcee the parade?  Well, they are.

The parade ends and immediately moves into the official Grand Opening.  I can’t talk about the complete specifics (hey, we have to have some secrets), but I will say that it will be an incredible events.

Be on the look out because there will be some upcoming times to tour the new building.  As soon as I know when, I’ll pass along the times.  Trust me, you want to get the chance to see this place.  Between the design, color scheme, art, amenities, and overall layout, it’s going to be like no other children’s hospital (or hospital for that matter) you’ve ever seen.

And if you’re there are the grand opening, look me up, I’d love to say hey.

by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

In a follow up from yesterday’s post, I have completed my Le Bonheur Children’s Ambassador Training.  It was a little touch and go as to whether I would make the cut, but I did.  (Okay, there were no cuts, I just thought it would be more dramatic.)  There was even a graduation ceremony, with a lot of pomp for the circumstance.

When I wrote yesterday’s post, I referred to the ambassador role as a tour guide.  That is, in part, true, but I learned quickly that it is more than that.  The ambassador is an important role for telling the story of Le Bonheur Children’s.  We educate on the hospital’s vision for the future, and Le Bonheur Children’s role in the community, nation, and world.  We are here to share the amazing and touching stories of the hospital, both historically and during the building process.

If you don’t know this already, let me be the first to tell you that there is no shortage of those stories.  Also, to put in perspective the size of the hospital, we were trained to provide a two-hour tour, and we are not even covering half of the hospital!

As I promised, here are a few interesting facts about the new Le Bonheur Children’s:

• The new hospital is 610,000 square-feet in size.
• The complete Le Bonheur campus is will be 50 percent larger and will cover more than one million square-feet.
• In the same way the current hospital is designed, all patient rooms are private, and now will accommodate comfortable sleeping space for two parents.
• Playrooms and space for families to gather on every inpatient floor.
• The new hospital includes a movie theater.
• Lactation rooms for moms are available on each floor.
• The Emergency Department will more than double in size, with 64 patient treatment rooms in the new area.
• Almost half of the beds in the new Le Bonheur Children’s are for critical care patients – these beds are in the dedicated pediatric intensive care, cardiovascular intensive care and neonatal intensive care units.

Over the next few weeks, I will share more specifics about the new Le Bonheur Children’s and the exciting aspects of it.  Also, what kind of a blogger would I be if I didn’t take a few pictures?

by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

One thing that I have prided myself in is knowledge about Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.  Besides the facts that I work here and I’m a dork, it is information that I use on a fairly regular basis.  Why do I use this knowledge (other than winning at obscure trivia)?  Tours.

It is surprising the number of tours that I have given during my time at Le Bonheur Children’s.  It has led me to collect nuggets of information about most areas of the hospital.  Additionally, with the exception of a few square feet here and there, I have been everywhere in this building, including the roof.  Needless to say, I’ve developed a fantastic tour, and can spend all day telling you about Le Bonheur Children’s.

Here’s the funny thing about moving into a new building: there are no “tour guides” for it.  Sure, we’ve done construction tours, but most people will be interested in the finished product.  Have no fear because we have a plan: ambassador training.

Ambassador training is a process put in place to train approximately 100 ambassadors (translation: tour guides).  What is more amazing is that ever a tour guide… err… ambassador will have the exact same knowledge and experience.  This means that regardless of who leads the tour, everyone will hear the same information.  Trust me, this is no small feat.

Additionally, the ambassadors will be the group giving tours to the community, as we get closer to the grand opening and move in date.  We know that people are interested in getting a look at the new hospital, and we want to accommodate with tours.  When I have more information on the specific dates of public tours, I’ll be sure to post it.

Today I will be in my ambassador training, and I’ll see if there are any interesting tidbits that I can share.  So, I’ll take lots of notes and pictures and report back tomorrow.  Consider me your inside source from Le Bonheur Children’s Ambassador Corps.

Don’t worry that I’m blogging during it, I do have my tricks…