PAnda Express BRINGS HOPE TO PATIENTS AND FAMILIES, AFTER DONATING $7.5 MILLION TO ESTABLISH THE PANDA CARES CENTER OF HOPE AT CHILDREN’S HEALTH℠

Zoey was 18 months old when she was rushed to Children’s Health after a near-drowning accident.

On a feeding tube and barely moving, doctors told her mother, Rebekah, that she’d likely be in a semi-vegetative state for the rest of her life.

But as Rebekah leaned over the crib to tell her baby that she loved her, Zoey smiled. And that smile filled Rebekah with hope.

“From then on, I knew she was going to be OK,” Rebekah said.

Now 12 years old, Zoey loves to talk about the novel she is writing and illustrating. She laughs as she spins donuts in her wheelchair. And she’s proud of how far she’s come since her accident, including eating on her own and bearing about half of her body weight when she stands.

She and her mother credit much of her success to the nurses and rehabilitation therapists at Children’s Health.

Through several intensive, weeks-long therapy sessions, Zoey's clinical team coached Rebekah on how to care for Zoey. Therapists worked with Zoey to strengthen her leg muscles so she could bear some of her body weight, after surgery to correct her inward-turning legs and knees left the muscles weakened. Her care team decorated her hospital room to make it feel more like home. And sometimes a curly-haired therapy dog visited Zoey for cuddles.

More importantly, the team gave Zoey and Rebekah hope for a future. Now, Panda Express, a corporate donor to Children’s Health, wants to spread that same hope to more families.

Last year, Children’s Health received a $7.5 million total commitment from Panda Express — which includes a new pledge and historical giving made
possible by donations from Panda Express customers and employees through the partnership with Children’s Miracle Network — to establish a Panda Cares Center of Hope in the hospital.

“I don’t know of another hospital that does intensive therapy like they do. We wouldn’t be as far as we are now without them,” Rebekah said.

The Center of Hope inspires hope and promotes healing by providing specially curated programs that address each child’s entire well-being, including their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual needs. Programs offered at the Children’s Health Panda Cares Center of Hope include patient family education, support groups and strength and reflection activities — all of which are designed to give children the ability and courage to thrive.

“There's a set of kids who get treated in the traditional hospital, and when their care is done, they can go straight home. But there are a lot of kids for whom that’s not quite true,” said Brent Christopher, President of Children’s Medical Center Foundation. “Having this designation as a Panda Cares Center of Hope and knowing that Panda Express associates and guests are all stepping up to do their part to be with those families, to be with those kids on their journey toward healing, that is incredibly powerful.”

The numerous Panda Cares Centers of Hope across the country are made possible by donations from Panda Express guests and associates. Funds raised in-store and online at Panda Express go toward each store’s local community. Following a multimillion-dollar commitment to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to fund Panda Cares Centers of Hope, Panda and CMN Hospitals have debuted Center of Hope locations at several hospitals in the U.S. from California and Texas to Hawaii and Washington D.C.

“It's rare that a corporation really gives this much back to the community,” said Kelli Terpstra, Vice President of Clinical Operations at Children’s Health. “That supports our staff. It supports our families. It supports our children. It's very, very touching to know that they would care to be able to offer that to us.”