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Countless children around the nation today face increasing challenges totheir health and well-being -- challenges ranging from the growing numbers ofuninsured kids to the steadily climbing statistics on childhood obesity.Meanwhile, funding for children's healthcare from public and private payers isshrinking. Together for Kids, a national, not-for-profit foundation, serves asa catalyst for fundraising to help member hospitals across the country tacklethese challenges and bring better healthcare to more of America's children.
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"Together for Kids is committed to making sure the resources are availableto help make America's kids healthier and safer," said Together for Kids'chair Crystal Hinson Miller of North Carolina Children's Hospital at theUniversity of North Carolina. "Through Walk Across America, people all overthe country will be able to enjoy physical activity and at the same time raisemoney for hospitalized children."
Funds raised will go directly to children's hospitals in the Together forKids network. Supporters can direct their donation to a particular hospital orgive to the national organization for equal distribution among memberhospitals.
Walkers and non-walkers alike can participate in Walk Across America byregistering online at the Together for Kids Web site(www.togetherforkids.org). On the site, participants can go to individual Walkweb pages for each member hospital and make a miles-walked pledge or a fixeddonation. Supporters can walk a route of their choice and raise money as anindividual or join a team of co-workers or students and collect pledges foreach mile walked.
Together for Kids was launched in 2007 at a press conference at theNational Press Club in Washington, D.C. It is committed to providing anurgently needed national fundraising mechanism to support the work of memberhospitals. Pediatric specialists from Together for Kids hospitals who make upits Physicians Advisory Committee have prioritized childhood obesity andaccident prevention as critical challenges on which hospitals will worktogether to make a real difference.
National statistics show that the percentage of overweight children jumpedfrom 6 percent in the 1980s to 17 percent in 2007. Obesity puts children atrisk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In addition, the leading causeof death for children age 1 to 14 is accidental injuries -- more than allother causes of death for this age group combined. Each year, 20 percent to 25percent of all children in the U.S. -- more than 39,000 each day, will sustainan injury serious enough to require medical attention and/or bed rest.
About Together for Kids
Together for Kids (www.togetherforkids.org) is a national alliance ofchildren's hospitals and other hospitals serving children, dedicated tobuilding a healthier future for America's kids. The organization provides anurgently needed national fundraising mechanism for its member hospitals,helping them care for seriously ill children and tackle the toughest healthissues facing all kids, with a focus on childhood obesity and injuryprevention. The organization was established in 2007 and consists of 53hospitals in 47 U.S. cities.Public walk events will be held by the following Together for Kids memberhospitals: September 25: Blank Children's Hospital, Des Moines, Iowa October 5: The Children's Hospital at Bronson, Kalamazoo,
