Children's cuts ribbon at Legacy
After years in the making, Children's Medical Center at Legacy celebrated its completion with the community on the sun-filled morning of Thursday, Sept. 25.
John L. Adams, chairman of the board of Children's Medical Center, opened the celebration by welcoming all in attendance, including multiple elected officials and donors. The Honorable Pat Evans, mayor of Plano, followed Adams with a proclamation declaring Sept. 25, 2008, as "Children's Medical Center at Legacy Day."
The dream of Children's at Legacy launched into a reality because of the support of 51 visionary founding families and organizations that committed at least $100,000 to the $15 million wePromise capital campaign to build, equip and staff Children's at Legacy.
The land on which Children's at Legacy is located, 7601 Preston Road – at the corner of Hedgcoxe and Preston roads – was purchased in 2001. The facility itself, a 184,000-square-foot, $147 million project, was built with patients and their families in mind. Every patient room has large windows to the outside for children and their families to view the natural beauty of the fields, streams and horses on the 155-acre property.
Christopher J. Durovich, president and chief executive officer of Children's Medical Center, thanked community leaders, board members, philanthropists, architects, pediatricians, UT Southwestern colleagues and employees. He noted that Children's at Legacy's completion would not have been possible without significant contributions from each group.
"The tradition of providing world-class pediatric healthcare has been under construction for 95 years at Children's Medical Center," Durovich said. "Tradition here at Children's Medical Center at Legacy has been under construction for three years, but it is the beneficiary of the long-standing mission, values and service to the community that have been our hallmarks.
"Today, we celebrate this next step in our work-in-progress as we fulfill our promise to bring world-class, high-quality academic and pediatric healthcare to the children of North Texas."
Area students take part in celebration
Students from two Plano middle schools helped conclude the ceremony. Cheerleaders from Hendrick Middle School led a countdown for the ribbon cutting as band members from Rice Middle School played a drum roll. More than 50 area children equipped with safety scissors put an exclamation point on the ceremony by simultaneously cutting a 100-foot-long red ribbon.
Children's now extends its world-class pediatric care closer to the homes of children living in Collin, Cooke, Denton, Fannin and Grayson counties. In opening the new hospital, Children's Medical Center, an almost-100-year-old pediatric healthcare provider in Dallas, becomes the only academic healthcare system in the region focused solely on pediatrics.
The hospital opens with 24 inpatient beds, emergency services, four operating rooms, four procedure rooms and dedicated transport services. Ancillary services, such as Laboratory and Radiology, also operate 24 hours a day.
The Children's Ambulatory Care Pavilion at Legacy, which moved to the new hospital campus in April, has been providing outpatient services in Plano for the past two years and offers the largest suburban group of pediatric specialists in the nation.
View more images from this event.
From left, Ralph and Susan Stow, parents and Plano community members; Christopher J. Durovich, president and chief executive officer of Children’s; and John L. Adams, chairman of the board of Children’s, prepare to cut the red ribbon designating the official opening of Children’s at Legacy Thursday, Sept. 25. With them are dozens of children who helped cut the ribbon with the aid of safety scissors.
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