Named Barry, these teddy bears adorned the tables at the April 25 Coffee and Commerce. The bears were outfitted by a Children's Day shirt, which recently joined with the T.J. Community Mission Foundation. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
At the April 25 Coffee and Commerce, T.J. Community Mission Foundation Executive Director Randy Burns announced two new foundation undertakings.
Reflecting on the foundation’s past and progress, Burns told the gathered community members about the Dreamcatcher Program, a product of 10-12 months of work.
“It’s basically going to function like a Make-A-Wish program, but exclusively for South Central Kentuckians,” Burns said. “Unlike Make-A-Wish, which is just pediatric, this will be for both adults and kids. [This is] for folks who have either a critical illness diagnosis or a fatal diagnosis; it doesn’t have to be someone who only has six months to live, it’s a little wider than that.”
“If somebody’s never seen the ocean or if somebody’s never been to Disney World or if somebody’s never skydiving…we’ll provide those type of opportunities,” he added.
Burns said the Dreamcatcher Program, which is done through the T.J. Community Mission Foundation, will hopefully “go live” within a month. He added down the road there’s the potential for Dreamcatcher-specific fundraising to “help as many people as [they] can.”
“We’ve still got a couple little things we’ve got to do in regards to formalizing timelines…, so I suspect by the end of May or first of June we’ll have everything ready to go,” Burns said.
The second project was to serve T.J. Regional Health’s “most vulnerable patients.” As the first capital project of the newly absorbed Children’s Day, Burns announced a “major renovation” of the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Burns said the renovation of the unit will cost $362,500, which Burns said they already have.
“The project is going to be done through our Children’s Day program, which is our pediatric health initiative,” Burns said. “We plan to start construction in the summer. The project will be done by Alliance Corporation…. The footprint [of the unit] will e the same but they’ll gut it and redo it.”
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