Hello and welcome to the December edition of our monthly communication. As we come to the close of another calendar year it is my pleasure to give you some updates regarding The Children’s Foundation and our many affiliate activities.
First, I want to thank the great volunteers of the Festival of Trees. This annual event has turned out to be our largest fundraiser in history at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan (CHM) and now The Children’s Foundation. Over the years, the endowment known as the Evergreen Endowment has now reached over $10 million supporting world-class clinical pediatric research at CHM. A special thank you to Therese Diefenbach and Scott Killingbeck for their ongoing leadership and endless energy and support.
The Jamie Daniels Foundation continues to create new ways to raise funds for the nine collegiate recovery programs they are currently supporting as well as the new Adolescent Addiction Recovery Center which opened in October in Troy. Recently, The Jamie Daniels Foundation held Hot Stove Stories with Mickey & Ken, which was a great success raising more than $100,000 and once again proving wholeheartedly that Detroit is indeed Hockeytown!
As the year comes to an end, we are approaching all our generous donors regarding their year-end giving and are so thankful for this ongoing support. We have many ways in which you can support The Children’s Foundation including Donor Advised Funds.
This December also marks the end of my tenure at The Children’s Foundation. I want to thank the Board of Trustees for all their support these past six years as well as my colleagues. It has truly been a highlight of my career to serve in this role and I know The Foundation has a bright future with a great Board and a dynamic new leader in Andrew Stein. I believe the best days are ahead!
Again, thank you for the opportunity to keep you up to date monthly and even though I won’t be writing anymore, I’ll be listening and watching all the progress that is definitely going to be made over the next many years.
As I like to say… Onward!
Lawrence J. Burns
President & CEO
