The GIANT Company is donating $1 million to Children’s Miracle Network at Penn State Children’s Hospital to support the care of sick and injured children. The gift will fund a car seat safety program, a health and wellness program for local schools and the expansion of Penn State Children’s Hospital.
- The gift will expand the Pediatric Trauma and Injury Prevention Program’s car seat safety initiative to provide families in need with free car seats and installation support. The program currently hosts as many as six car seat safety stations per month in Dauphin County. The funding will expand this service to additional counties including Cumberland, Lebanon and York. The additional safety stations will be held four times per month at various GIANT locations beginning in September.
- The gift will also expand the Penn State PRO Wellness Healthy Champions program, which currently reaches more than 600 schools K-12 across Pennsylvania. The program assesses each school’s nutrition and wellness initiatives and provides tailored resources for improvement including food demonstrations, special events and educational resources.
- Lastly, the gift will support the three-floor expansion of Penn State Children’s Hospital. The GIANT Company will be recognized for its support on two “Walls of Hope” in the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which is scheduled to open this fall. The walls will include large screen monitors that display inspiring images of children who have “graduated” from the NICU.
“We are humbled by The GIANT Company’s continued generosity and commitment to saving and improving the lives of children in our community,” said Deborah Berini, president, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “This gift will help families struggling with economic hardships, local students who face an uncertain school year and pediatric patients who will need access to our growing children’s hospital in the coming year. Thank you, GIANT Company!”
“Like so many in our community, The GIANT Company sees Penn State Children’s Hospital as a beacon of hope and healing for so many families across Central Pennsylvania,” said Nicholas Bertram, president, The GIANT Company. “As a company wholeheartedly committed to changing children’s lives, we are grateful for the opportunity to do so in partnership with Penn State Children’s Hospital. We know that these funds will enable the doctors, nurses, child life specialists and the hospital’s entire care team to continue making a difference in the lives of those they serve, now and for years to come, truly connecting families for a better future.”
The $1 million gift to Children’s Miracle Network Hershey is in addition to The GIANT Company’s annual register campaigns and golf outing, which raised $870,555 in 2019. In March, The GIANT Company also donated $250,000 to five Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals including Penn State Children’s Hospital to support COVID-19 response efforts. The GIANT Company also made a gift when the free-standing Penn State Children’s Hospital opened in 2013 and named the elevator vestibule on the first floor. As the top corporate donor to Children’s Miracle Network at Penn State Children’s Hospital, The GIANT Company has donated more than $11 million since 1996 toward the hospital’s mission to provide world-class care for our region’s children.
The GIANT Company's gift will advance “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With the support of alumni and friends, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hardworking students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.