Believe it or not, fundraising doesn’t take a break in the summer. Need proof? Well, Children’s Medical Center Foundation just scored a $1M donation to support the expansion at Children’s Medical Center Plano.
The donation came from Take 5 Oil Change and Take 5 Car Wash, part of Driven Brands, the largest automotive services company in North America.
In recognition of this generous gift, Foundation President Brent Christopher reported, “The Take 5 donation will be recognized in one of the new patient family and visitor waiting areas on the Plano campus, providing a welcoming, comfortable space to decompress and rest from what can sometimes be stressful situations.”
Located on each floor, the “family and visitor waiting areas are inviting spaces for families to meet with visitors outside of their children’s rooms,” Children’s said. “These are particularly essential for families with children who are on isolation and cannot receive visitors in their rooms.”
According to Driven Brands EVP/COO Danny Rivera, “As a proud member of the communities where we live and work, Take 5 Oil Change has been honored to support local children’s hospitals for nearly 20 years.”
During that time, the Driven Brands Charitable Foundation had already provided $4M for children’s hospitals across the country to help kids like Children’s Ambassador 11-year-old Kaleb, who has Congenital Heart Disease.
And just as Take 5 operations have experienced a growing presence in Texas because of the state’s increasing population, Children’s expansion is in overdrive, with experts predicting that about 3M children will live — and have wide-ranging healthcare needs — in North Texas by 2050.
The Take 5 donation, along with Bright Industries’ $7.5M and the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation’s $500K, means that more than $14M has now been raised for the Plano expansion.
Just recently the “topping out” of the new expansion tower signified completion of the building’s frame, “marking another crucial step toward opening the 395,000-square-foot tower at the end of 2024,” Children’s said.
Once completed, the tower will nearly triple the number of available patient beds, from 72 to 212, for pediatric subspecialty care programs like cardiology, oncology, gastroenterology and neurology.
And just as the brick and mortar construction continues, so does the fundraising.
* Rendering credit: HKS/Children's Health ** Photo provided by Take 5