Our Cause
For the past two years, the Celebrity Weekend has met its fundraising goals to support the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Tacoma General Hospital as well as the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital Parenting Partnership program. This means that through the generous support of our sponsors, donors and participants, that over $1.4 million dollars has been raised to date! It is also noteworthy that 100 percent of the gross revenue generated by this event directly supports our two related causes. In 2008, we hope to again meet our fundraising goals, and with your help, this will be possible.Highest on our wish list for the NICU is to have a standardized infant resuscitation protocol using CosyCot with the NeoPuff™ infant resuscitator. When an infant needs to be resuscitated, this specialized infant bed allows our staff to set the precise pressure to keep a newborn's lungs optimally expanded. Our staff can be assured they are delivering the correct amount of volume and oxygen to an infant in the excitement that can surround resuscitation. The NeoPuff is used in the delivery room and the infant remains on the CosyCot while being transported to the NICU. In those crucial first minutes and hours, the short-term and long-term benefits of the NeoPuff to the infant’s health, are immense.
The NICU at Tacoma General Hospital
The NICU serves as southwest Washington’s only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for newborns, providing the highest level of care available. It is the Neonatal Referral Center for eight counties: South King, Pierce, Lewis, Thurston, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Mason, Jefferson, and Kitsap. Every year, more than 1,500 premature and critically ill newborns receive the area’s highest level of intensive care. The NICU is also nationally accredited in Neonatal Transport Services, which provide care and transportation for over 300 premature infants annually. Although the NICU was built to service 50 infants, it can have days with as many as 68 babies. Our NICU provides the very best chance for babies who just a few years ago would have died. They now have a chance for a healthy start.
Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital Parenting Partnership Program
To create safe and supportive environments for families and infants "graduating" from our NICU, and to help infants reach their growth and developmental capacities, MultiCare created the Parenting Partnership, a two-year, multi-disciplinary program to support NICU families with psychosocial risks as they learn to care for infants with biological risks.
The program, grounded in research, provides education, training, and therapeutic support through consistent home visits from NICU nurses and professional family support workers and through facilitated group sessions with other NICU families. Staff members partner with parents to build a strong, enduring web that protects and nurtures the child and creates good patterns of child care. The program addresses risk factors for maltreatment and poor health outcomes, strengthens protective factors, and improves parents' knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors. The Parenting Partnership helps families learn to access medical care optimally and appropriately to promote growth and development within each child's capacity.
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