The Texas Children’s Hospital October 2 Kids Day game against the Tennessee Titans was a huge success with the Houston Texans raking in a victory while Texas Children’s employees attending the event enthusiastically cheered for their hometown football team.
Twenty-five employees who won a pair of tickets via the Employee Health and Wellness Go for the Gold challenge sat near the end zone whooping and hollering at each and every play. Another 50 employees – many of whom were recently selected as the 2017 Catalyst Award winners (to be officially announced later this month) – enjoyed the game from a suite also near the end zone.
The tickets to the game are one of the benefits of Texas Children’s Hospital being the official children’s hospital of the Houston Texans football team. Texas Children’s and the Texans launched a seven-year partnership last season to inspire children to lead healthier, more active lives.
“The experience all around was amazing,” said Cynthia Alegria, one of the Go for the Gold ticket winners and an administrative supervisor in the Pathology Department. “Because of the hospital’s generosity, I was able to spend some real quality time with my husband and enjoy some well-deserved down time.”
During the football game, the Texas Children’s logo could be seen on several screens throughout NRG Stadium. One shot was of a boy wearing one of the 20,000 pairs of eye blacks that were passed out to young fans as they walked into the game. The eye blacks sported the hospital’s logo. See photos from the game below.
“I saw the red Texas Children’s Hospital eye ‘stickers’ everywhere walking around the stadium and on the big screen,” said Executive Vice President Mark Mullarkey. “This was a fantastic way to reinforce our partnership with the Texans and what we are doing with the football team in the community.”
Mullarkey was the honorary coin toss captain and got to go out onto the field prior to the game with his family and with Infection Prevention and Control Department Medical Director Dr. Judith Campbell and her husband. The group stayed on the field and helped present $50,000 in PLAY 60 grants to six local schools: Southmore Intermediate (Pasadena ISD), Cornerstone Academy & Academy of Choice (Spring Branch ISD), J.C. Mitchell Elementary School (HISD), Attucks Middle School (HISD), Westbury High School (HISD) and Blackshear Elementary (HISD).
PLAY 60 is the National Football League’s campaign to encourage kids to be active for 60 minutes a day in order to help reverse the trend of childhood obesity. Nearly 80 local schools applied for the grants, which are worth up to $10,000, to help purchase the equipment they need to get kids moving throughout the school day and in after-school programs. Five of the schools selected for grants are Title I and all have demonstrated a commitment to getting kids active and on the path to developing healthy habits that will last a lifetime. In the four years of the program, the Texans have awarded $170,000 in PLAY 60 grants to local schools for PLAY 60 projects.
For more details about the hospital’s partnership with the Texans click here.
