Pediatric Child Life Non-Profit Hope for Henry Names Business Leader Hugh Panero as Chairman of its Board of Directors
Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 09, 2014 -- Hugh Panero, co-founder and former CEO of XM Satellite Radio, has been named Chairman of the Board of the Hope For Henry Foundation. Hope for Henry is a decade-old non-profit that improves the everyday lives of Washington, DC area children fighting cancer and other serious illnesses by providing them and their families with carefully-chosen gifts and specially-designed programs to entertain and promote comfort, care and recovery. Panero has served on the Board for six years prior to assuming this position.
“Hugh’s counsel has been invaluable to Hope for Henry’s success and we are excited that he has agreed to become our Board chair. He has and will continue to leverage his tremendous business acumen to scale Hope for Henry programs through social innovation while deepening our relationships with the Washington area’s leading hospitals,” said Laurie Strongin, Executive Director and Founder, Hope for Henry Foundation.
Gifts of iPads, visits from celebrities and athletes, book readings by renowned children’s authors, spa days with makeup artists and aestheticians and fun birthday parties complete with Georgetown Cupcakes, are a few of the daily distractions that Hope for Henry provides to children confined to hospital rooms as they fight illnesses that threaten their lives. The organization funds full-time child life specialists at local hospitals, including MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC), to administer its programming and measure its effectiveness.
Added Panero, “I am honored to champion Hope for Henry’s ambitious and winning strategy of improving these kids’ daily lives and hopefully their medical outcomes by bringing fun and joy into the hospital. When you attend a Hope for Henry event and see a very sick child smile, maybe for the first time in weeks, you immediately grasp the power and importance of the organization and its mission.”
In 2013, Hope for Henry designed and launched a pilot patient incentive program to help children with cancer and blood diseases undergoing bone marrow transplantation at Children’s National overcome their medical challenges. The Super Path to Super Duper Better program, which uses gamification and rewards to motivate children to endure difficult medical procedures necessary to get better, is an example of the organization’s children-focused social innovation that it plans to scale nationally.
About Hope for Henry
Hope for Henry Foundation improves the lives of children with cancer and other serious illnesses by providing carefully-chosen gifts and specially-designed programs to entertain and promote comfort, care, and recovery. Since 2003, Hope for Henry has served more than 12,000 children at hospitals in Washington, DC and around the country – bringing smiles and laughter, hope and magic into the lives of these children and their families. Hope for Henry was founded to honor the legacy of Henry Strongin Goldberg, a Washington, DC resident who died at age seven of a rare, fatal disease.
Allen Goldberg, Hope for Henry Foundation, http://www.hopeforhenry.org, +1 (202) 368-4670, [email protected]
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