News & Stories
Making a Difference in the Lives of Children
L to R: Susan Bass Levin, President and CEO, The Cooper Foundation; Adrienne Kirby, PhD, FACHE, President and CEO, Cooper University Health Care; Gisele DiNatale, Founder and Executive Director, Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation; Jason Ravitz, Ravitz Family Foundation; Brittany Spaeth, Child Life Manager, Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper; Robyn Harvey, RN, BSN, Executive Director, Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper; Michael Goodman, MD, Chief of Pediatrics, Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper.
When a child is sick or injured, the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper is always there. The tremendous generosity of our donors supports a range of programs and initiatives to help children get better and feel more comfortable during their hospital stay. Read here about our recent donations for a Pediatric Infusion Center, a newly opened Teen Lounge and renovated Child Life Playroom.
Thanks to a $400,000 pledge from the John E. Kostic Memorial Foundation to establish an inpatient pediatric infusion center at Cooper University Health Care to be dedicated in memory of John E. Kostic.
In honor of John, who lived with juvenile diabetes, his family established the John E. Kostic Memorial Foundation to improve the lives of young people in New Jersey and the surrounding area.
The outpatient pediatric infusion center will provide family-centered care to children requiring short or long-term infusion therapy, therapeutic injections or provocative stimulation testing. Infusion therapy will be administered to infants, children and adolescents who require either one-time or ongoing IV therapy for a variety of acute and chronic illnesses including juvenile diabetes and other endocrine disorders, as well as cancer, blood, genetic and gastrointestinal disorders. The John E. Kostic Pediatric Infusion Center will be a place of care and comfort, of education and entertainment, for children and their families.
This spring, in partnership with the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation and the Ravitz Family Foundation, we opened a new Teen Lounge for adolescents where they can go to take a break from their hospital stay, have fun and meet others their own age who can relate to what they’re going through.
The Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation and the Ravitz Family Foundation each donated $10,000 for the creation of the Teen Lounge, which is outfitted with a flat-screen television, comfortable couches and chairs, two computer consoles, gaming systems, board games, books and much more.
In addition, Cooper’s Child Life Team will provide programming and activities geared specifically toward teenage patients.
To view photos from the Teen Lounge opening, click here.
We also began a complete renovation of the Child Life Playroom and adjacent parents room thanks to a generous donation from the Johnny M. Foundation. The new Johnny M. Playroom is expected to open this fall and will provide a modern and welcoming environment for our littlest patients and their families to enjoy.
In June, our annual Pediatric fundraiser – sponsored by Mercedes Benz of Cherry Hill and the Cooper Women’s Board – raised $150,000 to benefit children’s health care programs. Read more about honorees Gary Stahl, MD, Vice Chief, Department of Pediatrics and Head, Division of Neonatology, and Richard Selznick, PhD, Director, Cooper Learning Center here. Click here for pictures.