Boeing gives MUSC $1M donation for children’s center

Charleston Regional Business Journal
Matt Tomsic
May 5, 2011

The Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital will use a $1 million donation from Boeing for a community-based center to promote better health for the state’s children.

John Nash, a spokesman for the MUSC office of development and alumni affairs, said the organization has received million dollar gifts before, but “there is no such thing as a routine million dollar gift.

“To get a contribution of this size from a business, especially one so new to the community, is extraordinary. It’s highly unusual,” Nash said.

Boeing gives MUSC $1 million donation for children’s centerMUSC announced its plans and the donation in a news release Thursday. The Boeing Center for Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles in Children and Families will help children link healthy diets, physical activity and good health.

Children can receive nutrition counseling, fitness training, exercise classes, medical assessments, individualized treatments and group programs at the center, which will be housed and managed from the MUSC Children’s Hospital. But it will host activities at other locations throughout the community.

The center will have an “initial two-year ramp-up period,” according to the release, and will be serving more than 8,000 children and family members by the end of that period. About 47,000 children and 8,000 personnel will benefit from menu changes at 79 local schools.

South Carolina ranks 10th nationally for obesity.

A recent MUSC study found 43% of children and 67% of adults in the Charleston County School District were overweight or obese.

In April, The Education Foundation announced a grant from Boeing to fund an initiative to bridge the gap between science, technology, engineering and math education and businesses that depend on workers to fill jobs with those skills.

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