Event gives big boost to children’s hospital
More than 3,400 people walked, ran and cycled through the sixth annual Tour de Broward, raising more than $400,000 for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
The event was based at Miramar Regional Park and featured a 3K walk, a 5K run, and 50K and-100K bike races, as well as children’s play stations, bounce houses, bean bag tosses and more.
The money will fund equipment, programs and activities that benefit the Hollywood hospital’s patients, said Kevin Janser, senior vice president and chief development officer for Memorial Healthcare System. Among the major projects: the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit will be expanded from 64 to 84 beds, and the emergency room will go from 24 to 37 beds.
“These expansions are desperately needed to give our patients and their families at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital the best care possible,” Janser said.
Work on the NICU is expected to be completed this summer, while the ER’s expansion is expected to begin soon, he said. Plans for another project, a four-story vertical expansion to the existing hospital, are under development.
Another goal of the event is promoting fitness and health, said Scott Singer, the hospital’s associate administrator.
“This is a way for all of us to come together with former patients and their families and raise awareness of the depth of services available here,” he said.
One such family participated for the third year in a row: John Pastorius ran with son Johnny, 10 and a former patient.
Johnny, who was born with a slight heart murmur, began to suffer various ailments in late 2011. Tests confirmed that he had endocarditis, an infection that attacks the heart muscle. An avid athlete, Johnny had just played a basketball game when his mother took him to the hospital when he began exhibiting other symptoms.
“She saved his life,” said Pastorius, of Pompano Beach.
Doctors performed openheart surgery on Johnny to repair a damaged valve and a hole in his heart.
He recovered well enough to participate in the 2013 Tour de Broward. He returned in 2014, and again this year. This year, his father wanted to publicize Johnny’s good results and wrote “6-4-2012, Open Heart Surgery, JDCH” in marker on his chest and back and had his son run shirtless.
“I told him we need to let people know how good you’re doing just in case someone is going through, or is about to go through, what you already went through,” Pastorius said.
And while Pastorius was able to keep up with his son’s pace in previous races, he was outrun this time around.
“The last year we kind of ran together, but this year, about two-thirds of the way into the race, he passed me up,” he said.
For more information, visit Jdchfoundation.org or call 954-265-3454.