It’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago our great city was submerged in water. And although the sight of the devastation is something I will never forget, what I have thought about more often since then is how we, together, braved the storm.
Shortly after Hurricane Harvey, I met with Texas Children’s Board of Trustees, and I explained how we’d fared during the storm. I shared our incident command approach to operations and gave an update on our facilities. But I was most proud to talk about you, our amazing staff and employees.
Throughout the storm, I spoke with our leadership team multiple times a day, every day, keeping a pulse on everything that was occurring throughout the organization. The weather and operational briefings were important, but the stories of our people moved me most. There were so many shining moments where staff and employees showed incredible strength and kindness, even in the midst of a pretty frightening and unpredictable storm.
The Board was moved as well. So much so that they wanted to do something to honor every single Texas Children’s employee. So last week, the Board approved a resolution to recognize Texas Children’s staff and employees, and I’m sharing it here.
In addition, it’s also important to acknowledge our awesome community and the partners who weathered this storm with us. So many individuals and businesses responded with in-kind donations to help our patients, staff and employees immediately after the storm, and I sincerely appreciate their generosity. A heartfelt thank you to all, including:
- 7K Investments LLC
- AbbVie Foundation
- Air Care and The Women’s Hospital of Texas
- Airgas
- J. Kessinger
- Antone’s
- Bellows
- Brown Bag Etc.
- Chick Fil A
- Chipotle
- Cleveland Clinic
- Costco
- Cotton
- CVS
- Direct Energy
- Direct Relief
- The Gerber Foundation
- HEB
- ICHIGO Asset Management International PTE Ltd.
- Infogroup
- Interface Architectural Signage Inc.
- The JPB Foundation
- James Brooks
- Kroger
- March of Dimes
- Morris-Dickson
- Morrison’s
- Northwestern Mutual Foundation
- Pallotta’s Italian Grill
- Panda Express
- Teammates for Kids Foundation
- US Army Reserve: 1st/158th Assault Helicopter Battalion Ghost Riders
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- Vizient Foundation
- Walmart Foundation
- Wyndham Hotels
The actions of our community and partners spoke volumes about their appreciation for you and the seamless care that continued at Texas Children’s throughout the storm. And we were able to do what we do that much better because of the spirit of generosity that surrounded us.