A Heartfelt Thank You From The Children’s Inn CEO and the NIH Director
Throughout its 30-year history, corporate partners have enabled The Children’s Inn to serve more than 15,000 children and young people with rare and serious diseases so they could participate in groundbreaking clinical research studies at the National Institutes of Health. During this unprecedented pandemic, corporate support plays an even greater role in helping sustain The Children’s Inn’s important work now and for the future.
When The Children’s Inn canceled the 2020 An Evening for Hope gala – its largest single source of income – corporate supporters stood by The Inn, turning their event sponsorships into generous donations. These donations help The Children’s Inn serve children and young adults with critical diseases whose best hope is an experimental treatment as part of an NIH clinical research study.
“I was very disappointed to have to cancel our annual An Evening for Hope gala and to miss the opportunity to see so many of our wonderful corporate partners and the NIH leadership,” says Jennie Lucca, CEO of The Children’s Inn. “The Children’s Inn couldn’t carry out our mission without our corporate partners. Their generous support of The Inn shows how truly invested they are not only in the NIH’s innovative, cutting-edge research but also in directly helping the individual children and families affected by devastating diseases. Thanks to their unwavering support, we are able to navigate through the most difficult chapter in the history of our organization – and one of the most difficult times for our nation and the world.”
Held annually, An Evening for Hope unites more than 800 guests including top business leaders and leaders from The Children’s Inn and the NIH. While the pandemic canceled The Inn’s signature event this year, it has only reinforced the key reasons for supporting the NIH’s and The Children’s Inn’s missions.
“Everybody at the NIH is absolutely full-out in trying to do what we can to bring the best science and the brightest minds to tackling COVID-19,” says NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. “I do want to say that all of this generates an awful lot of data. Here is where the federal IT sector has been a critical partner for us, and I know a number of those folks are in fact supporters of The Children’s Inn. And I want to say right now, “Thank you!” to them – both for what they have all done in terms of their philanthropy for The Inn but also for the skills and the capabilities and the partnership we have with them. At a time like this, it’s really important.”
“Everything that The Inn provides is continuing undiminished for these families,” says Children’s Inn board member Diane Baker, who is also Dr. Collins’ wife. “It is a joy to see the way all of you are pulling together and, in particular, our donors. We have always been a nonprofit serving a federal agency and a unique need in clinical trials, and that has continued, unabated. So, thank you all!”
The Children’s Inn is proud to recognize and thank our corporate partners for their support during this time of crisis, and for aiding the NIH in fighting one of the greatest public health threats in recent history.
Thank you for helping making childhood possible today and a treatment or cure possible tomorrow!
