Charities & Non-Profits

From expanding pediatric transport capabilities to distraction tools for children during long stays for treatment, Mercy Health Foundation’s Benefit for the Kids is essential to optimizing the capabilities of Mercy Children’s Hospital. “This event allows us to provide better care, enhance the patient experience and reach out to the community in ways that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” says Mercy Children’s Hospital president Dr. Joseph Kahn.

For 148 years, Epworth Children & Family Services has focused on helping kids build brighter futures. Through a variety of programs, the agency provides a support network for older youth in need. “Epworth becomes an extended family for these kids and helps them get down the right paths in life,” says board chair Amy Berg.

Friday 4

More than 3 million books, CDs, sheet music and other materials are waiting to return home to Central Library. Along with its 100th birthday, the main branch of the St. Louis Public Library will celebrate the completion of an extensive three-year restoration and modernization in 2012, a project made possible by the St. Louis Public Library Foundation’s first-ever major capital campaign. “It’s precedent-setting for the region because there’s never been a capital campaign of this size for a library,” says Foundation president Rick Simoncelli. “We’re forging new ground for St. Louis to think of philanthropic dollars of this magnitude going to a public library.”