Community News
For More Than 80 Years, Helping Children Lead Better Lives
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Aug 20, 2005, 23:14

(NAPSI)-Though they've been helping children for generations, there are still a few facts about the Shriners hospitals that may surprise you.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is an international hospital system with 19 orthopaedic hospitals, three burn hospitals and one hospital providing orthopaedic, burn and spinal cord injury care, located throughout North America.

Since its founding, the Shrine supported charitable activities and in the early 1900s decided to establish its own official philanthropy.

Shriners in 1919 voted to establish a "Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children" to treat orthopaedic injuries, diseases and birth defects in children. It was decided, after months of research and debate, that there should be a network of hospitals. The first opened in Shreveport, La., in 1922.

During the 1950s, Shrine leaders, looking for other ways they could help the children of North America, became aware of the lack of medical expertise in burn care. Each year, thousands of children are disfigured or killed by severe burns.

In the mid-1960s, the Shrine opened three Shriners Hospitals specializing in burn care. Each has the three-fold mission of helping children, conducting burn research and training medical personnel in the treatment of burns.

The Shriners Hospitals are pioneers in burn treatment. They are actively involved in the development of innovative techniques that will continue to revolutionize the treatment of severely burned children.

Shriners Hospitals have been actively engaged in clinical research from the beginning but in the early 1960s, the Shrine began earmarking funds for basic and clinical research. Since then, Shriners Hospitals have been at the vanguard of orthopaedic and burn research.

In the early 1980s, the Shrine discovered yet another way to help children: by opening the nation's first spinal cord injury centers expressly for children. At the three spinal cord injury units in the Philadelphia, Chicago and Sacramento Shriners Hospitals, young people with spinal cord injuries can find not only the specialized medical care needed for rehabilitation but hope, inspiration and strength.

In 1996, Shrine Representatives voted to change the name of their philanthropy to Shriners Hospitals for Children, to reflect the expanded range of services provided by Shriners Hospitals. As Shriners Hospitals look toward the next century, they do so prepared to continue their special brand of care for children in need.

The rules for all the Shriners Hospitals are simple: Any child can be admitted to a Shriners Hospital if, in the opinion of surgeons, the child can be helped and if the child is under 18 years of age. Shriners Hospitals are open to all children without regard to race, religion or relationship to a Shriner.

To date, Shriners Hospitals have treated more than 770,000 children with orthopaedic and burn problems and provide care absolutely free of charge. Shriners Hospitals have been called the "World's Greatest Philanthropy," and have become known as the heart and soul of the Shrine.

For more information on Shriners' network of 22 hospitals that provide medical care and services totally free of charge to children with orthopaedic problems, burns and spinal cord injuries, write to Shriners International Headquarters, Public Relations Dept., 2900 Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607 or visit the Web site at www.shrinershq.org. Treatment is provided to children under age 18 without regard to race, religion or relationship to a Shriner.

If you know a child that Shriners can help, call 1-800-237-5055 in the United States or 1-800-361-7256 in Canada.Shriners Hospitals have been pioneers in some of the most advanced techniques for treating orthopaedic problems and burns.

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