March 7, 2012
Peyton Manning and St.Vincent Health Remain Strongly Committed to Indiana's Children
INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – For more than 14 years, Peyton Manning has demonstrated his commitment to Indiana's children through his partnership with St.Vincent Health and Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent. Given the recent announcement, Peyton has assured his unwavering dedication to our children through promotion of numerous health programs and services, fundraising, and advocating issues that affect pediatric patients.
"We are fortunate to partner with a selfless individual who has given his time and resources off the field for the betterment of children and our overall community," said Vincent C. Caponi, CEO of St.Vincent Health. "Our longstanding private and public relationship with Peyton will continue as we serve the unique healthcare needs of our pediatric patients."
In 2007, St.Vincent Health and Peyton partnered to announce a new name for the faith-based health system's children's hospital – Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent.
Since the renaming of the children's hospital, St.Vincent Health and Peyton have collaborated on the annual Celebration of Caring Gala. The fundraising event for Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent honors a community leader who has been an advocate for children's health, and recognizes a patient family and hospital department for providing highly-specialized care. Total net money raised from the four Celebration of Caring Galas has exceeded $2 million, and brought in national recording artists such as John Mellencamp, Darius Rucker, Vince Gill and Kenny Chesney.
This year, Peyton and Ashley Manning will serve as the honorary chairpersons for the 5th Annual Celebration of Caring Gala in early May.
"Peyton's off the field legacy eclipses anything he has done on the field," said Kevin Speer, chief strategy officer of St.Vincent Health. "He and Ashley have both spent many hours with the pediatric patients and families at our Children's Hospital as well as personally lending his jersey number and time to help kids stay fit and healthy from football clinics with IPS to our Project 18 initiative."
In 2009, Peyton joined with St.Vincent Health to create Project 18, an 18-week health curriculum for 3rd – 5th grade students that focuses on nutrition, physical activity and holistic health. The goal of the school health and wellness program is to fight Indiana's childhood obesity problem. To date, more than 530 schools representing 72 Indiana counties in 151 cities participate in Project 18. Since its inception, the school health and wellness program has served approximately 106,400 children.
Last year, the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent license plate was available for all Indiana drivers. The license plate sales benefit the Child Protection Team, which serves abused and neglected children. Peyton's support and advocacy resulted in 1,036 license plate sales within the first year, which raised approximately $26,000 for the Child Protection Team.
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About St.Vincent Health
St.Vincent Health is a nonprofit, spiritually-centered health system, sponsored by Ascension Health of St. Louis, MO., the nation's largest Catholic health system. St.Vincent Health is one of Indiana's largest employers with 20 health ministries serving 47 counties in central Indiana. The 130-year-old health system delivers high quality, compassionate care in service areas such as cardiovascular, womens, childrens, neurosciences, cancer care, orthopedics, bariatrics, primary care, emergency medicine, imaging, general surgery and long-term acute care. For more information, visit www.stvincent.org.
Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent
Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent was founded on delivering family-centered care for all pediatric patients throughout Indiana. The dedicated children's hospital has grown to more than 300 pediatric sub-specialists, 46 inpatient beds, 15 beds in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and 17 private rooms in the Hilbert Pediatric Emergency Department. The array of pediatric sub-specialists and clinical staff at the comprehensive children's hospital provide the highest quality of care in emergency medicine, cancer and blood diseases, general surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, pulmonology, otolaryngology, rehabilitation, endocrinology and neurology.
For more information contact:
Johnny Smith Jr.
St.Vincent Health Communications/Community Relations
System Manager
317-583-3961
jasmith1@stvincent.org