UI Children's Hospital To Receive Massive Addition, Thanks In Part To The BHGP Community

We here at BHGP are still in awe of the massive output our community put together for this year's Iowa Touchdowns For Kids fundraiser. The program netted over $180,000 in total, and the BHGP readership contributed $20,641.70. Over $20k. All from us.

Well, we're happy to report even better news on that front; not only are we helping the lives of children in general with this program, but we're helping facilitate a major upgrade in child care in the state of Iowa.Here's more from the Daily Iowan:

The University of Iowa is set to start construction on a new tower to house its Children's Hospital after more than two months of planning.

The state Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to approve designs for the new tower.
The $271 million, eight-level project is slated to house 195 patients; it will be funded through University Hospital's Building Use Funds, UI Hospitals and Clinics Revenue Bonds, and Hospital Gift Funds.

UI Medical Affairs officials expect to complete the new facility by 2015.

"I feel this is a very positive day for the future of the UIHC and for a well-needed children's hospital," said Jean Robillard, the UI vice president for Medical Affairs.

What's even better about this news is that those readers who contributed to TD4K this season have already helped the University of Iowa take that first step. Every single donation that came in this year has been earmarked for this addition to the Children's Hospital, and since all the fundraisers are UI employees, none of the donated money goes to overhead. In other words, 100% of the donations go to the new development, and not to some organization that promises the new development. Those of you who donated this past season have already made a major difference, and those who will donate this year will have that same impact.

To be clear, we're not asking for any more money out of our readers right now; if you really have that itch, you can contact Michelle Altmaier at the UIHC (for spam purposes, we won't list her email address, but it's mighty easy to find if you're looking for it). We do think, however, that since over $20,000 was raised in BHGP's name, people would want to know where all that money was going. And we're enormously proud to announce that it's going toward the first space dedicated to childrens' medicine in UIHC history, and that we couldn't have helped do it without you.    

Yay Touchdowns for Kids. Yay UICH. Yay everybody involved in helping Iowa stay at the forefront of children's medicine, helping save childrens' lives here at home.