MORGANTOWN – WVU Medicine Children’s hospital celebrated a $150,000 fundraising pledge with a check presentation outside Friday afternoon.
The pledge came from the Wheeling-based Circus Saints & Sinners Club, which raised its initial $35,000 at its inaugural Party on the Plaza music festival in downtown Wheeling in July. This was the first installment of the group’s five-year pledge.
Paul Smith, chairman of Party on the Plaza, said, “Healthy citizens make for a healthy and better West Virginia, and that starts with children and their mothers.”
Circus Saints & Sinners was founded in 1929 as a non-sectarian association of successful professionals dedicated to fellowship and charitable giving. “We’re just a bunch of guys that like to have fun and raise money for charities,” Smith said.
Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration was the title sponsor for the event and pitched in to organize it. “We are big supporters of Children’s Hospital as a company and Saints & Sinners is a great organization,” said Panhandle Vice President Bob Contraguerro Jr. “We were excited to do that.”
In recognition of the club’s support, the waiting and reception area of the diagnostic and imaging floor at WVU Medicine Children’s will be named for Circus Saints & Sinners.
The club’s pledge is part of the hospital’s “Grow Children’s” capital campaign, which seeks to raise $60 million in private support for the new hospital and associated program improvements.
The nine-story, 150-bed hospital, located next to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital and the Heart & Vascular Institute, is slated to open in February.
Chief Operating Officer Amy Bush said, “Every day I’m more and more overwhelmed at the people that just want to be a part of this legacy. Having Circus Saints & Sinners showing their support through Party on the Plaza and one of the top sponsors with Panhandle is just a tremendous way to give back to the hospital and the community.”
They’re in the home stretch, she said. “Last weekend was the first time that really hit me.” They lit the signs on the hospital’s exterior walls, and there was a football game. “There were so many texts. … To have the community start to really realize that this is happening very soon is just a really special time.”
Anyone interested in donating, she said, can go to WVUMedicine.org/GrowChildrens.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
