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leaders in giving
Broesches pledge $1 million for recruitment and retention
By Ann Saye
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The Broesche
family pledges $1,000,000 to Texas
Children's Generation to Generation
initiative for recruitment and retention. |
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Giving |
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“When it comes right down
to it,” said Henry Broesche, “it’s all about people.”
Broesche and his wife,
Carolyn, have made a $1,000,000 commitment through their family
foundation to support the people that make Texas Children’s Hospital
such a special place for pediatric patient care, education and
research.
The gift to the hospital’s
Generation to Generation initiative was recent, but its roots go
back a long way–all the way back, in fact, to the hospital’s
beginning in 1954.
As candy striper
volunteers, Carolyn and several of her friends from Pershing Middle
School made tuna fish sandwiches in the lunchroom at Texas
Children’s on the day the hospital opened. Little did Carolyn know
then that future encounters with Texas Children’s would be much more
personal and more serious.
Sixteen years later,
married to Broesche, a successful homebuilder in Houston, Carolyn
took their youngest son, Karl, to his pediatrician, Laura Bickel,
M.D. He was diagnosed with acute nephritis, or kidney failure, and
though treatable, the condition can have serious complications.
Bickel told her to take Karl immediately to Texas Children’s. It was
the only place to go.
“I remember the nurses
gave me a hard time about letting Karl ride some of his toys down
the hallway at the hospital,” Carolyn said with a laugh. “But most
of all, I remember the wonderful care he received.”
Over the years, the
Broesches said they heard more stories about Texas Children’s and
came to know more and more people whose children received lifesaving
treatments here.
“We began thinking about
what we could do to help a place that had come to have a very
special place in our hearts,” Carolyn said.
“We have been so fortunate
in our lives, and we find real joy in being able to give something
back.”
In 2007, the couple met
with Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s
Hospital.
“All the stories Dr.
Feigin told us were about the people who make Texas Children’s the
first-rate children’s hospital that it is, and that’s what really
struck me,” Broesche said. “Whether you’re running a business or a
hospital, if you don’t have the best people, you won’t go very far.
So doing something to help in this arena really made sense to us.”
Published Winter
2007-2008
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