35th annual Kids Day is here. How to donate and what your donations do at Valley Children’s
Kids Day is back for its 35th annual fundraiser for Valley Children’s Hospital and this year the hospital is celebrating over 70 years of providing healthcare to children in the Central Valley.
Last year, the fundraiser raised $270,955. This year the goal is to raise around $300,000.
Like the last couple of years, Kids Day will be going virtual due to COVID-19 concerns. All articles written for Kids Day this year will be free to read on The Fresno Bee website.
Donations can be made by visiting the Valley Children’s Hospital website or sending a $10 donation by texting “GEORGE” to 20222.
Money raised on Kids Day will go to programs and services that support patients at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera County just across the San Joaquin River from Fresno. The money will also help fund programs like Child Life and Spiritual Services and the purchase of highly specialized equipment like the da Vinci Robot surgical system and EOS imaging machine. They also help to bring in doctors in much-needed and highly specialized areas like Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery and Neuro-Oncology.
Valley Children’s Healthcare Network President and CEO Todd Suntrapak explains that Kids Day is one of the most important and humbling events to benefit Valley Children’s Healthcare.
“While we have shifted to a ‘virtual’ event over the last three years due to COVID-19, and we miss seeing the nearly 8,000 volunteers on street corners across the Valley selling special editions of The Fresno Bee,” Suntrapak says, “Kids Day remains a wonderful tribute to the generosity of people around the Valley who, one dollar at a time, contribute to our organization. Since its inception in 1988, Kids Day has raised more than $10 million. The Valley’s generosity makes such a difference to Valley Children’s every day — and Kids Day is a great day to celebrate that.”
At the main campus alone during the fiscal year 2021, Valley Children’s hospital saw 274,143 outpatient visits, 73,945 emergency room visits, 10,221 inpatient discharges, 61,603 primary care visits, and 6,718 obstetrician-gynecologists.
This 35th annual Kids Day is once again sponsored by The Bee and ABC30.
Kids Day 2022
Go to valleychildrens.org/kidsday to read “Olivia’s Story” about this year’s Kids Day Ambassador and learn how to support Valley Children’s Hospital.
New this year, you can create a personal fundraising page online that can be shared with friends, family and members of the community to collect donations in support of Kids Day.