The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Makes Second Grant to New Hospital Building
Community Commitment
An “investment in excellence” is how Wendy Garen, president and chief executive officer of The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, describes the Foundation’s recent grant of $500,000 to the New Hospital Building.
It is the second time the Parsons Foundation has supported Living Proof: The Campaign for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, following a generous pledge of $2 million in early 2005. That gift marked only the sixth donation in excess of $1 million in the Foundation’s history, and it also supported the New Hospital Building. “Helping keep Childrens Hospital at the forefront of medical care and research is an important priority for the community,” says Ms. Garen. “Because of that, the Foundation’s board was delighted to make these commitments.”
The latest gift will help fund the installation of the state-of-the-art High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration system in the New Hospital Building. HEPA filters remove viruses, bacteria and mold from the hospital’s air, greatly reducing the risk of airborne infection agents. The filters are already installed in select areas of the current hospital. The entire New Hospital Building will be HEPA-filtered, helping protect patients from the risk of infection.
“It is so encouraging that The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation has supported us not just once, but on an ongoing basis,” says Claudia Looney, senior vice president of Development at Childrens Hospital. “It is donors like the Parsons Foundation who ensure a healthy future for our children and families.”
About the Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1961 as a modest gift-giving organization by the late Ralph M. Parsons, founder of the Parsons Corporation, a worldwide engineering and construction firm based in Pasadena. The firm’s projects included Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and the NASA Space Shuttle facilities, among others. Subsequent to Mr. Parsons' death in 1974, the Foundation received the residue of his estate and has been governed by an independent board of directors and administrative staff ever since, no longer affiliated with the Parson Corporation.
The Foundation's areas of interest include: higher education, particularly in the fields of engineering, science and technology; social impact and health services programs, particularly for disadvantaged youth, women and children, and the elderly; and civic and cultural projects. Since its creation, the Parsons Foundation has supported the best nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County. In 2007, the Foundation's net assets were $440 million and grants totaled $24.4 million.
The recent grant to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles brings the Foundation’s total support of the hospital to $4.1 million. In addition to the New Hospital Building, the Foundation also funded the purchase of special monitoring equipment for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in 1981, the Hematology/Oncology expansion in 1996 and the Burtie Green Bettingen Surgery Center in 1998, among other projects. The Foundation’s first New Hospital Building gift will be recognized by naming The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Dining Terrace. In honor of this latest grant, Childrens Hospital will highlight the Foundation’s support at the entrance of three examination rooms and a nurses’ station in the Emergency Department.
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