The Junior League of Memphis recently pledged $25,000 to the campaign to build the new Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center. The gift will fund the Nutrition Teaching Room in the new hospital which is scheduled to open in 2010.

The Junior League of Memphis Nutrition Teaching Room will provide a place to teach parents about children’s nutritional needs, including preparing formulas and special diets. While the room will be designed around the needs of patients and their families, it will also be utilized for training the next generation of healthcare professionals, including dietetic interns, pediatric nurse interns, pharmacy students and pediatric residents.  The room will be designed like a home kitchen to provide hands-on teaching, along with audiovisual equipment for showing instructional DVDs and videos.

“The Junior League saw the opportunity to fund the Nutrition Teaching Room as a great way to support the organization that daily helps save the lives of our community’s children. I’m a mom and the majority of our members are mothers. In the event that one of our children needed quality medical care, we would trust the physicians, nurses and therapists at Le Bonheur,” said Mary Trotz, Junior League president.

Later this year, Le Bonheur will begin demolition for the $327-million replacement facility that will be built on the current site of Memphis Mental Health Institute at Poplar and Dunlap.

The family-centered facility will nearly double the space for patient care, research and teaching. The emergency department and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit will also double in size.

“The Junior League of Memphis has been instrumental in improving the lives of Memphis children for 85 years. We are thankful for their continued support of Le Bonheur and know that the new Nutrition Teaching Room will provide a valuable resource to our parents, patients and medical professionals,” said Meri Armour, Le Bonheur president and CEO.

About the Junior League of Memphis
The Junior League of Memphis is an organization of over 1600 women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.  The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. reaches out to women of all races, religions, and national origins who demonstrate an interest in and commitment to voluntarism.  For more than 85 years, the Junior League of Memphis has provided in excess of 4,000,000 volunteer hours and $5,000,000 to address the critical needs of the Mid-South community. This year, the Junior League of Memphis has committed more than $250,000 to community projects – the largest one-year gift of the JLM to date. For more information about Junior League call (901) 452-2151 or visit www.jlmemphis.org.