The 12th annual Kids at Heart lunch, held Feb. 28, raised more than $120,000, after expenses, to expand psychiatric services at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. 

The lunch, organized by the Providence Health Care Foundation, was held at the Spokane Convention Center, and about 700 people attended it, up substantially from last year, says Kathy Maurer, the foundation’s marketing and special events director.

“This is what is known as a free-ask event,” Maurer says. “The lunch is free, but (attendees) know at a certain point they’re going to be asked to make a donation that is meaningful to them.”

Major sponsors of this year’s lunch that also donated to it were the Fred Meyer Fund, STCU, Bouten Construction Co., Rosauers Supermarkets Inc., Kalispel Tribe of Indians/Northern Quest Resort & Casino, Washington Trust Bank, Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories Inc., and the Empire Health Foundation, she says.

Maurer says the lunch is the foundation’s main fundraising event, and the money that it raises each year goes to a different area within the children’s hospital, such as its neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric cardiac services, and a child pain-free initiative.

Of this year’s funding focus, Joyce M. Cameron, the foundation’s chief development officer, says in a press release, “Children in need of psychiatric treatment often enter the hospital through the emergency department. These kids can sometimes end up in the ED for several days while they wait for a psychiatry bed to become available.”

A new pediatric crisis support program currently being established will help ensure that children in crisis receive the help they need the minute they walked through the emergency department doors, even if the pediatric psychiatry beds are full, the release says.

Also at this year’s event, five people and one organization received the Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital “Advocate of the Year” award. The award recognizes people and organizations that share the children’s hospital’s vision of creating partnerships with the community to advocate for the good of children and families, the foundation says.

This year’s honorees are Pam Austin, director of the Indian Education Program at Spokane Falls Community College; Rebecca Bates, Passages Family Support; Freda Gandy, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center; Dr. Michelle Messer, Partners With Families & Children; Rosey Thurman, TeamChild; and Rosauers. 

Separately, longtime Spokane pediatrician Dr. A. Christopher Olson was presented with “The Peggy,” an award that recognizes exceptional individuals who have given their time and talent to the children’s hospital.

The foundation used to hire speakers from outside of the community to keynote the luncheon, but over the last few years has had physicians serve as its speakers, and that has worked well, Maurer says.

Gifts to Providence Health Care Foundation are used to support health care access and delivery to families throughout the Inland Northwest, with special concern for the poor and vulnerable. 

In 2016, the foundation awarded 534 grants totaling more than $6.1 million to Providence ministries in Spokane and Stevens counties.