October is almost over, and the holiday season is fast approaching. If you’re looking to start checking items off of your shopping list a little early, make sure you pick up a Glennon Card. Every fall, the initiative offers St. Louisans a chance to show some love to children in need while also supporting great local businesses. Proceeds from card sales go toward key health initiatives for patients at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.
This year’s Glennon Card shopping period runs through Oct. 24. With the purchase of a $60 card, shoppers get 20% savings at more than 270 stores, restaurants and service providers. “It’s a unique program because it involves the entire community,” says Lauren Storment, senior annual philanthropy coordinator for SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation. “It’s amazing to watch the participating businesses and shoppers come together to support the hospital.” Glennon Card is presented by the foundation and Glennon Guild, a women’s auxiliary with more than 300 members.
This year, one of the initiatives benefiting from the program is Danis Pediatric Center, which offers outpatient pediatric care to children regardless of their families’ ability to pay. The center hosts 20,000 patient visits annually at it’s two locations at Cardinal Glennon and in midtown. The families who visit the clinic are extremely diverse, with nearly 20 languages represented, and more than 75% live below the poverty line. “Danis Pediatric Center serves the region’s most vulnerable children, and its services also address the needs of entire families,” Storment says. “It goes above and beyond just pediatric care.”
Along with health care, Danis Pediatric Center offers complimentary programs to support families. These include special services to help internationally-adopted, refugee and immigrant children as well as parenting resources and programs for foster children. The center also works with organizations like St. Louis Area Diaper Bank and Operation Food Search to supply families with necessary resources, and its Danis CARES program offers more support, including help coordinating transportation and providing access to social workers and family navigators. “The center works to address the social determinants to health, such as poverty, food insecurity, mental health and language barriers,” Storment notes. “These services really help make sure parents can provide the best care for their children.”
The Glennon Card program also has supported initiatives like Cardinal Glennon’s milk lab, the Reach Out and Read program, the 3D Printing Center of Excellence, and a number of enhancements to patient areas and different programs at the hospital. Storment notes that these are improvements Cardinal Glennon would not have been able to make easily without the support of St. Louisans. “We couldn’t do it without the community,” she says. “Not counting this year, Glennon Card has raised $1.87 million. We are so grateful for everything that the community does to support this awesome program and Cardinal Glennon.”
Purchase a Glennon Card at glennoncard.org for major savings at local retailers and eateries through Oct. 24.
Pictured at top: Danis Pediatric Center offers Pediatric Care and family support services.
Photo courtesy of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital
