Public Employee Press

Divisions raise funds, for hospital

Maybe you caught Marlo Thomas on the Today show in November — making the pitch for holiday giving to the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Or perhaps you’ve seen one of the many heart-wrenching television ads featuring the hospital’s cherubic children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

When they saw the St. Jude’s children on TV, David Catala and Yesenia “Jessie” Colon of DC 37’s Blue Collar Division and Myrtle London and Marlene Nurse of the Hospitals Division decided the institution would be a great place to help with the funds from the divisions’ annual holiday giving tree.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts applauded the generosity of the givers, who raised a total of $400 for the charity from the staff and local presidents. “This is the true spirit of the holiday,” she said. “People always receive more than they give when they dedicate their hard-earned dollars towards helping others.”

The hospital, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas (father of Marlo) in 1962, is located in Memphis, Tenn. He pledged that all of the knowledge gained from the facility’s cutting-edge research would be freely shared with the rest of the world. St. Jude treats children from across the United States and from more than 70 countries. The hospital, renowned for its advances in research, maintains an International Outreach Program to improve the survival rates of children with catastrophic diseases.