Ronald McDonald Houses provide a home-like place for families to stay while their children are receiving treatment in the hospital. The Houses were the idea of Fred Hill of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, when he and his wife needed a place to stay while their daughter Kim underwent treatment for leukemia at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia in 1974. Houston’s first Ronald McDonald House, funded in part by the Houston Oilers, opened at 1550 La Concha lane, near the Astrodome, in 1981. It had 21 bedrooms but was soon outgrown and replaced with a 50-bedroom House nearer the Texas Medical Center, near Holcomb Boulevard and Cambridge Street, in 1997. There is also a 20-room House inside Texas Children’s Hospital (2002) and a 14-room one inside Children’s Memorial Hermann (2007).

Known for their red vests, the Women’s Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital (WATCH) is a volunteer service organization that provides supplemental services for patients, families, and staff of Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX. The organization was established in 1954 when Texas Children’s Hospital opened in the Texas Medical Center. From the beginning, WATCH has provided such services as, manning information kiosks, managing the coffee shop and toy shop, escorting patients and families through the hospital, conducting tours of visitors, and acting as hosts at medical symposia. They also provided clerical work and translation services. The organization began with 300 volunteers in 1954, and it has grown to over a thousand, providing tens of thousands of volunteer hours each year to all Texas Children’s Hospital locations in the Houston area. The Auxiliary publishes a magazine entitled WATCH that showcases volunteers, service programs, developments in the hospital, and fundraising events.

WATCH also has provided significant fundraising for the hospital through the years. The organization is one of the top ten donors to the Texas Children’s Hospital. The annual Silver Tea is one of the many fundraising projects organized by WATCH. Other projects have included vending machines, Christmas cards, toy shop sales, and an annual bazaar.

Junior Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital is a program that offers junior volunteers between the ages of 15-18 the opportunity to interact with patients or perform administrative duties. The Junior Auxiliary or Junior Council was established in the late-1960s.

Texas Children’s Hospital opened on February 2, 1954 within the Texas Medical Center in Houston, TX. It is the primary pediatric training site for Baylor College of Medicine, which has one of the largest pediatric residency program in the United States. Members of the Houston Pediatric Society were first to recognize the urgent need for a children’s hospital in the area and began a series of informal planning sessions in August 1947. As a result, the Texas Children’s Foundation was organized and chartered expressly to develop plans for the hospital and secure community support for the project. Members of the Junior League of Houston, who sponsored a prenatal and children’s health clinic in the city since 1927, have been instrumental in the history and development of the hospital from the beginning. After the 1993 expansion, Texas Children's Hospital became the largest pediatric medical facility in the country.

SOURCES:

“Women’s Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital”, 20th Anniversary Texas Children’s Hospital, The Junior League of Houston and The Women’s Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Texas Children’s Hospital, 1974

“Foundation and History of Texas Children’s Hospital”, 20th Anniversary Texas Children’s Hospital, The Junior League of Houston and The Women’s Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Texas Children’s Hospital, 1974

“Six Decades of Making a Difference”, Aspire, Texas Children’s Hospital blog, 2016, http://aspire.texaschildrens.org/donor/2016/1469/ [accessed 2/13/2018]

Handbook of Texas Online, "Texas Children's Hospital," accessed January 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sbt06.

The Friends were incorporated in 1960 to “assist in the development, improvement, and expansion of facilities, services, and functions of the Texas Medical Center Library, and to support its administration. It shall be the purpose of the organization to secure gifts and bequests and provide funds for books, journals, rare books and manuscripts, and whenever possible for library equipment, lectureships, and scholarships, and for any other purpose which would be beneficial to the” Library. The collection was donated by James Greenwood III, who is apparently the son of James Greenwood, Jr., MD, who has a small collection in the TMC Library archives.