120 Anniversary

To the dedicated staff of Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, who give their all for the children, and to the people of Cleveland, who have given their loyal support for 120 years to help make this, their own children’s hospital, among the very best.

 

It is hard to believe that a meeting of nine young women known as the “Rainbow Circle” on Thanksgiving Day in 1887, asking what they could to help Cleveland’s children, laid the foundation for something as groundbreaking as what Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital has become today. A sense of responsibility to the community and an understanding of the importance of a facility for the city’s less fortunate children to recover from illness has grown into one of the nation’s preeminent children’s healthcare facilities. As a young female from the city of Cleveland, I am honored to be a  part of the legacy that these women began over one hundred years ago, and I know that my family is honored to have been able to make such a difference in both the quality of care and the quality of life offered at Rainbow.

My understanding of Rainbow’s importance began when I was thirteen. As I planned by my Bat Mitzvah with my parents, the question of what I wanted for gifts arose. Having been to a few of my peers’ Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, I knew that the traditional gifts tended to be monetary. However, from conversations with my parents, I understood that I was fortunate enough not to need checks and gift certificates and so after giving much thought to what else I could do with the gifts people going to give me, I decided that donating them to charity and more specifically Rainbow would be the most rewarding for not only myself but also my friends, family and the community. My family has always been very philanthropic, and because I was raised in an environment that emphasized giving, having my friends and family donate to a cause I felt strongly about, felt like the natural answer to my dilemma.

The decision to give to Rainbow was actually very easy for me. My family has always been an advocate of donating to medical research, and Cleveland has always been known for having superior medical resources. Rainbow has always had a reputation for being at the cutting edge of pediatric care, but I had visited there before and always found it to be depressing.  I felt that a more upbeat environment was needed for children, where the focus was not only on being sick but on getting better. My solution was a playroom where kids could escape and be kids again. My hope was that the fun environment that a playroom created would help young patients to get better faster while making the whole hospital experience less frightening.

My friends and family rose to the occasion, donating to the fund I set up to furnish the Rainbow playroom in honor of my Bat Mitzvah. The pride and sense of fulfillment that I felt was contagious as my gift precipitated discussions between my grandparents and the hospital about the greater needs of Rainbow. My grandparents had been thinking for a long time about doing something to create a lasting legacy in the Cleveland community that they and their family could be proud of for generations to come. Furthermore, they had always felt that there is a certain degree of civic responsibility that comes with the kind of financial success our family is fortunate enough to have had, and wanted to lead by example. Rainbow seemed to be a perfect fit, as it matched my grandparent’s love of children, desire to help generate medical advances, and goal of making a significant and lasting impact with all that they had been given.

The transformation that Rainbow has undergone over the past 120 years has been nothing short of amazing. Thanks to the women of the original Rainbow Circle and the continued philanthropy and hard work of all those involved in Rainbow today, it has become one of the pre-eminent children’s hospitals in the nation and a community treasure for Cleveland. I am honored to be a part of the legacy that was begun by these Cleveland women, and hope that others continue to support Rainbow and all of the good that it does for both children and their families.