SACRAMENTO – In a new twist to the benefit walk, area residents who support the health of our region’s children will walk Arden Fair Mall on Saturday, Oct. 17, as part of Together for Kids’ fund-raising campaign called Walk Across America. A full 100 percent of the funds raised during the local walk will go directly to the specialty care services at the Children’s Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, where many of the children throughout the region and beyond receive their care from birth to 18 years old for conditions ranging from low birth weight, cancer and brain tumors to diabetes and congenital heart defects.

The goal of the Sacramento walk is to help bring better health care to more of Northern California children by offsetting the shrinking funding for children’s health care from public and private sources. All funds raised by the Walk Across America at Arden Fair will stay in our community and help the Children’s Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento address the most pressing needs of young patients in Northern California.

The Children’s Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, is a comprehensive pediatric medical center, which serves as the regional referral center for neonatal and pediatric care for more than 23 counties and 48 hospitals throughout Northern California, Southern Oregon and Northern Nevada. It is the only medical center in the greater Sacramento area that offers on-site, 24-hour, board-certified pediatric intensivists and neonatologists, as well as 24-hour on-call pediatric anesthesiologists. Services begin for the children at birth; the Children's Center is home to Northern California's premier neonatal intensive care unit that treats hundreds of babies a year, including quadruplets and other multiples.

Because of its breadth of services, excellent outcomes and quality care, the Children's Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento has national recognition as a specialty children's hospital from the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions and is the first community, non-university hospital to hold this NACHRI designation. It is also the only non-teaching facility in Northern California granted associate membership with the California Children's Hospital Association.

“The funds raised during this walk will go a long way toward providing necessary medical services for our young patients in the greater Sacramento region,” said Dr. Gregory Janos, medical director of the Children’s Center at SMCS. “These services range from Sutter’s comprehensive pediatric oncology, neurology and cardiac programs to such groundbreaking services as our Pediatric Healthy Lifestyles Program, which is fighting adolescent obesity.”
 

Walkers and non-walkers alike can participate in Walk Across America by registering online at the Together for Kids Web site, www.togetherforkids.org. To sign up to walk or to make a donation to a walker, choose Children’s Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. Walkers will meet at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, on the second level of Arden Fair Mall, located at 1689 Arden Way, and will be treated to donations by some of the Arden Fair merchants, including breakfast items. Walkers can also sign up at the event. Major sponsors of the walk are the Children's Specialists Medical Group of Sacramento and SAFE Credit Union.

“Usually, these types of benefit walks are held in the great outdoors, but sometimes it’s not safe to exercise outside due to the weather and smog, or because of diseases such as asthma,” said Celeste Chin, co-chair of the Arden Fair Walk Across America for Sutter Medical Center Foundation. “This mall walk sends a message to the children and adults of the region that you can get your exercise just about anywhere – including the mall.”

Together for Kids was launched in 2007 and is committed to providing an urgently needed national fundraising mechanism to support the work of member hospitals such as the Children’s Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. Dr. Janos and other pediatric specialists from Together for Kids hospitals who make up its Physicians Advisory Committee have prioritized childhood obesity and accident prevention as critical challenges on which hospitals will work together to make a real difference.

National statistics show that the percentage of overweight children jumped from 6 percent in the 1980s to 17 percent in 2007. Obesity puts children at risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In addition, the leading cause of death for children age 1 to 14 is accidental injuries – more than all other causes of death for this age group combined. Each year, 20 percent to 25 percent of all children in the United States – more than 39,000 each day – will sustain an injury serious enough to require medical attention and/or bed rest.

Together for Kids (www.togetherforkids.org) is a national alliance of children’s hospitals and other hospitals serving children. The organization provides an urgently needed national fundraising mechanism for its member hospitals, helping them care for seriously ill children and tackle the toughest health issues facing all kids, with a focus on childhood obesity and injury prevention. The organization was established in 2007 and consists of 53 hospitals in 47 U.S. cities.

The Children's Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento is located at Sutter Memorial Hospital, 5151 F St., in Sacramento, and specializes in neonatal and pediatric intensive care, pediatric neurosurgery, oncology and cardiovascular surgery. The Children’s Center is affiliated with Sutter Health, a not-for-profit, community-based health system located throughout Northern California. For more information on Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, visit the website at suttermedicalcenter.org.