Children’s Miracle Network Gives $1M to TTUHSC to Bring Pediatric Specialists to Amarillo

Children's Miracle Network (CMN) has been a part of the Amarillo landscape for over 40 years. We have been partnered with CMN for decades. Each year, we participate in the Mediathon, teaming up with CMN and KAMR Local 4 News to help raise money for this amazing organization.

Every dollar raised stays local to help local kids

The paper balloons you put your name on at stores across the Texas Panhandle, or the donation you make when you call during Mediathon, mean something. Something big.

Children's Miracle Network is dedicated to promoting and improving the quality of children's healthcare in the Texas Panhandle.

What Did Children's Miracle Network Just Fund?

A huge step was taken in that mission on Tuesday, October 13, to improve children's healthcare in the Texas Panhandle. Because of the generous donations from you, businesses, and other donors, CMN was able to make a donation of $1,000,000 to the Pediatric Fund for Excellence with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC).

This donation will help ensure we have pediatric specialists right here in Amarillo. This will spare our children and their families from traveling hundreds of miles and spending hours and days away from home to receive the medical care they need.

Why Does Amarillo Need a Pediatric Gastroenterologist?

Let me tell you what this gift makes possible. Right now, there's not a single pediatric gastroenterologist practicing in Amarillo, Texas. Children with painful, debilitating digestive conditions or just constipation wait months for appointments or travel hours away for a single consultation. With this investment, we can recruit that specialist and bring this care home. - TTUHSC Associate Professor and Regional Chair of Pediatrics, Dr. Shannon Herrick

How Will Pediatric Cardiology Care Improve?

TTUHSC will also be able to use that donation to strengthen pediatric cardiology care by providing the equipment to treat more children here at home, again sparing those families from having to travel out of town to other hospitals.

Read More: How CMN Helped Amarillo’s Miracle Kid Chadlee Beat the Odds

Seeing All Sides of Children's Miracle Network

I’ve been involved with Children's Miracle Network for more than 25 years. I was introduced to the organization in 2001 when I was thrown into my first Radiothon, and over the years, I’ve met some amazing kids and families, many of whom I’m still close with decades later.

Read More: Hannah Rosales The First Miracle Kid I Met Remembers the Help CMN Gave Her Family

I’ve seen firsthand the difference CMN makes by helping families whose children are facing immense medical challenges. I've also experienced that help as a mom, because CMN helped my own child. I've had the privilege of serving on the CMN Board of Directors multiple times, and I'm currently serving another term. Being part of this organization has allowed me to see all sides, from meeting the families and helping raise money, to being a CMN mom, to serving on the board and seeing how those dollars are allocated. Through it all, the goal remains the same: improving the quality of children’s healthcare right here in the Texas Panhandle.

This is only the beginning of how Children's Miracle Network will continue its mission. The next time you're asked to buy a paper balloon or round up your purchase to the nearest dollar, or you hear us on the radio asking you to call or text in a donation, do it!