Children's Hospital Fundraising More Than Doubles Since 2011

When Patch checked in with the team behind fundraising for Stony Brook Long Island Children's Hospital in October of 2011, pledges and donations had reached nearly $4 million.

Now, about a year-and-a-half later, more than double that amount has been raised through gifts and pledges: $8,040,943. 

The goal is to raise $25 million for the new facility, which could break ground in late 2013 or early 2014, according to Dexter A. Bailey Jr., vice president of University Advancement and executive director of the Stony Brook Foundation.

"The children and families of Suffolk county shouldn’t have to drive 60 minutes to get world class care," Bailey said in an interview with Patch. "We will be the only public children’s hospital in the state of New York once the building is built. Stony Brook is very committed to this initiative."

When the children's hospital was launched in the summer of 2010, an anonymous donor issued a $10 million matching challenge. That donor provided a $1 million gift outright and said that if other donors stepped forward to make gifts by 2016, then those gifts would be matched up to $9 million. Bailey said the hospital has $4 million left to raise to take full advantage of the matching challenge, which would yield $8 million more for the hospital.

"I think we’re making really good headway. It has been a wonderful project to work on," Bailey said. "But it’s not been a project where there’s been an overwhelming kind of philanthropic response in some ways. ... The big, transformational gifts are a continuous challenge to secure."

For instance, he said, the children's hospital is still seeking a donor who will make a significant gift in exchange for the naming of the hospital as a whole.

However, Bailey said the large number of community-based fundraisers and donors are an indicator that the community cares about the cause. Examples include the Change for Children program in which students across Suffolk County collect spare change at school, which raised about $35,000 and was matched by an anonymous donor, and King Kullen's fundraising drive at checkout lines, which raised $5,000 for the children's hospital. The Day One Foundation donated $35,000 from a golf outing and the Smithtown law firm of Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC, made a donation of $82,000. 

"It’s definitely a good sign," Bailey said. "It’s an opportunity for all that community engagement. A lot of times, there’s a grateful patient story behind it."

In January, the hospital announced a gift of more than $390,000 to the children's hospital from the estate of the late Phillip and Carolyn McGrath, and in March, the Okst family of Port Jefferson – whose son Owen was a patient at Stony Brook 10 years ago – made a major gift to the hospital too.

"Giving to Stony Brook Children’s made a lot of sense for us,” David Okst said in a statement in March. “It is the only hospital of its kind on Long Island, and it has a reputation for providing exceptional patient care. It made us feel good that we could be part of making it even better.”

The children's hospital, which will be housed in the first two floors of a new to-be-built patient tower with a separate entrance and lobby, will be a 120-bed hospital with family-friendly amenities such as the ability to accommodate a parent who needs to sleep overnight his or her child.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct location of where the children's hospital will be built.