Key Club focuses summer service on CMN

Each year, more than 17 million children are treated in United States and Canadian hospitals supported by the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN). That’s a lot of children who depend on equipment and care specially designed for their young bodies and minds.

CMN Champion Hunter Blair, of Kentucky

Read about the Key Club of Grand Rapids High School in Michigan in KEYNOTER magazine's May 2007 issue. The club raised money for CMN by making homemade egg rolls.

 Children like eight-year-old Hunter Blair of Kentucky.

According to the CMN Web site, Hunter has “undergone countless surgeries, treatments, and medical procedures to address a variety of health problems including a serious heart condition, a missing spleen, and misplaced organs.” He had his first open-heart surgery at age four, and he’s one of millions of reasons why CMN is a Key Club International service partner and Key Club’s summer Season of Service focus.

During the summer months, Key Clubs are encouraged to support their local CMN hospitals through fundraising and hands-on service projects. (Find a CMN hospital near you.)

“Key Club’s support of CMN exemplifies the importance of kids helping other kids,” says Key Club International President Shivani Radhakrishnan. “Many of the (kids treated at CMN hospitals) are prime examples of what it means to face difficult circumstances with hope and courage.”

A few projects Shivani suggests to support CMN are:

• Trauma dolls.

These dolls are simple to make, and their “blank canvas” allows kids—or doctors—to draw on them. Kids can draw their illness, and doctors can use the dolls to explain medical procedures. Key Clubs can make the dolls during a club meeting and deliver them to a CMN hospital.

• Josh Project

Through the Josh Project, clubs can purchase and donate to a CMN hospital stuffed, plush puppies that come with a book addressing traumatic illness and giving comfort to a child coping with a serious illness.

• Fundraising events of CMN sponsors

Some corporations and businesses support CMN through special-event fundraisers, such as IHOP’s “National Pancake Day” or Dairy Queen’s “Miracle Treat Day.” Key Clubs can help promote those events—and, of course, attend as patrons.

“Our support of CMN will positively impact the lives of numerous children who face nearly every disease and injury imaginable,” Shivani says.

Children like Hunter Blair, who despite his many medical needs, now “runs full speed ahead in all he does.”