Chief Philanthropy Officer Stuart Sullivan Joins Positively Ernie on WABC 77

Speaker 1:

Now Positively Ernie with Ernie Anastos, a New York TV legend and radio host with great positive stories and interviews. Thanks, Ernie. You are the best. And now here's Ernie.

Ernie:

Hi everybody. Welcome back to the show. Nice to have you here today. You know, I love, love, love, love talking about positive stories, and that's what the program is all about today. I have a real special one for you. When you think of Shriners Children's, what do you think about? I know, I know what I think about love, care, uh, Love to the Rescue. I mean, all kinds of things that really to me excite you because, you know, we're talking about helping children and this is a great organization. What a footprint they have left, uh, since 1922, founded right here in New York City. And I'm delighted to have a very special gentleman with you. Put 'em on camera right now. Take a look at this smiley face 'cause you exude love and care and happiness. Uh, this is Stuart Sullivan, who is the Chief Philanthropy Officer. Nice to have you on board. How are you?

Stuart:

Great to be here. Very nice to be here. Thank you.

Ernie:

It's nice to have you because you know what, you're representing something that we talk about all the time, and that is positive forces. And you work with children. You must be so delighted with what your organization, uh, Shriners Children's has been doing for so many years. What a track record you have. Gotta feel good about that.

Stuart:

For 102 years, we have been helping kids live their best lives. Yeah. Uh, which is really positively what we do every single day. And we've been, we've had the honor and the privilege of treating over 1.5 million children since our founding. And, um, and we're able to treat kids from all over the world, all over the country. And we make sure that every child who needs our care gets it no matter what.

Ernie:

Mm. And Stuart, you know, we were talking about the personality of children. Uh, they're just so pure, they're so innocent, and, and they make us feel good. So I'm sure that you have so many stories, uh, where these young kids, you know, have been an inspiration to the medical staff, uh, to their parents, to you, to everybody. I mean, I'm sure you, you, you, you'll love talking about that.

Stuart:

Well, I, over 1.5 million of those stories, because children, um, they're innocent and all they want to do is smile and have fun. And so I think immediately of a little girl who was actually injured severely in Ukraine, uh, in the war there. And, um, she lost both of her legs and ended up coming to our, our hospital in Boston, and we were able to outfit her with two new legs. And, um, and, uh, her mother never thought she would be able to walk again.

And so the video of this little girl who was five years old, walking for the first time after losing her legs and then in hospital up there riding a bicycle. Oh, how great is that? Um, shortly after she got these legs, uh, you know, and was able to then begin to live her new life, um, because we were able to outfit her with prosthetic legs that then enabled her to be able to do things that her mother and her never thought she'd be able to do again.

Ernie:

Isn't it wonderful? And, and, you know, with, with that kind of history, when you're talking about all these years, think about a lot of these children, you know, who, who had this climb and, and reached the top. And now they're adults and a lot of them have continued. And I'm sure they come back and they say, thank you, thank you so much.

Stuart:

Well, we have, we have patients who we treated 75 years ago who come to us and they want to help. And because they know how, how we changed their life, and we turned their life into something that they thought was going to be, you know, a struggle into being a very successful of joyous life. And then they know the impact we made on them. And all they wanna do is help us make sure that the kids today get the same kind of care they do.

Ernie:

Exactly. And, and, you know, Stuart, uh, this takes, uh, so much work, uh, a a really professional staff and, and all the research that goes on, and you're just so much a part of that. Uh, but you know, what you give initially is hope. I think that, I think hope is a key word here, because when, when, when they come into you, that's what they're looking for. Can you help us? Is there hope for my child?

Stuart:

Well, so many of our families or parents who show up on our doorstep and find us, um, they find us because they've gone to other healthcare providers, and those healthcare providers are not used to dealing with the very complex and very profound, uh, situations that our patients are dealing with.

And so they come to us, and when they've gotten not so great news from other places, they come to us and we give them hope because we say to those parents, uh, don't worry. We have treated hundreds of children, thousands of children for this very same thing. And we will be with you hand in glove from the very beginning through and through the process of then getting your child to live their best life possible.

Ernie:

I, I, I love these stories. And, and, you know, the question comes up, people who are listening, watching us and saying, okay, uh, I love what you're saying. How do you, how do you, your organization, you as a leader as well, how do you instill that kind of sense of hope and spirit within Shriners Children's?

Stuart:

It's, it's actually very simple. All you have to do is meet one of our children. All you have to do is meet one of our patients. Because the moment you meet that child and you get exposed to the hope and the spirit that they have, you know, our inspiration, uh, as an organization and our inspiration. Our clinical, our surgeons, our nurses, our child life specialists are teachers who actually teach school in our hospitals. Their inspiration actually comes from the children that we have the privilege of helping.

Ernie:

You know, um, when I'm thinking about, and, and so many people, you know, who have watched the commercials on television, uh, they're beautiful Kaleb, you know? Oh, yeah. I really, and, and Alec, I mean, you know, when you see these faces, you identify with them Yeah. And, and you say, look at, look at the spirit of this child. And it's uplifting and it's inviting, and it makes people wanna respond to say, I wanna donate, I want to give. Because you know what? No matter what, you need the money, Stuart. Well, you need the money. Right.

Stuart:

Well, Alec is actually, you know, he obviously he's been a spokesperson for us for a long time. Yeah, and Alec actually is one of our best examples of what we do. He was treated at our Chicago hospital. Um, he was treated from the time that he was an infant. Literally an infant.

Um, he has a condition, um, that causes brittle bones. It's called brittle bone disease. Yes. Is the, is the layman's term for it. Sure. And, uh, it causes him to be able to break bones in a way that, you know, a normal child could do something and it would be just fine. Wow. He does it, and it breaks multiple bones in his body. Wow. And we've been treating him since he was a tiny baby, and now he graduated last year from Northwestern University.

Ernie:

Isn't that great?

Stuart:

With a degree in journalism. Wonderful. And, uh, and then he's able to live the life that he has today in part because of great parents who were, you know, helping along the way, of course. And, and then making sure that he had got the care he was that he needed. But also he was, we were fortunate and he was fortunate that he was in Chicago, and we were able to bring him into our system and then have him be treated with us and by us for all of his life. So far,

Ernie:

This is the kind of story that we're talking about, you know, from, from beginning all the way up to the top. So that's a great story. How about Alec? Because he also is very colorful on the air.

Stuart:

That's Alec. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, Kaleb. Kaleb is from, actually Montreal. Montreal. He's from Canada because we have a hospital in Montreal. He has the same condition that Alec has, the brittle bone disease. And Kaleb now I think is 16. And so, uh, and we treated him from the very beginning of his life as well. And, uh, he's living the great life of a teenager now. Um, of course he has to spend most of his time in a wheelchair because of the, the condition that he has. But, you know, Kaleb is a normal 16-year-old boy. Uh, in every way. And, and he has the same spirit in person and the same positive outlook that you see on those commercials.

Ernie:

You know, and, and it comes through. Kaleb has has got that smile, that personality and, and they're, they're animated, you know. They, they, they really come across and you say, these are professionals. I mean, you know, but, but it's from the heart. Yeah. And that's what you see. Um, talk about staffing, because that's so important. You've got an amazing group of people. Yeah. Uh, top professionals, and you get involved in the research, uh, which brings about, again, the hope and, and the care that you are providing. Talk about some of that 'cause people want to know.

Stuart:

Yeah. So we have, uh, for those of, for those who aren't aware, our system actually stretches from Montreal in the north to Mexico City on the south. And Mexico City happens to be our busiest hospital in terms of patient volume, and then we have four other clinics, um, in various cities across Mexico as well. And then in the US we go from Boston in the east to Honolulu in the west,

Ernie:

Tremendous reach.

Stuart:

And so these are a combination of inpatient hospitals and clinics, uh, and outpatient surgery centers. And the point being is that we have physicians, nurses, um, you know, specialists at every single one of those locations. And what we try to do is to make sure that a, a child who need, who needs us, is able to get to us as soon and as quickly as possible, and that they have the ability to get the kind of care that we provide. So we have over 5,000 employees, uh, spread across the system. Tremendous staff. Uh, we also have partnerships with a variety of, um, medical centers and academic medical centers, um, that are our partners in care. Uh, and, and that's a tremendous partnership for us because they're able to leverage our expertise where they're able to leverage their...

Ernie:

Expertise.

Stuart:

Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>. And then the, the unpaid heroes for us are the Shriners. And so the Shriners are the gentlemen who are Masons who then decide to become, then go on and become Shriners. And Shriners are the gentleman in the, the red fezzes.

Ernie:

Oh, we're all familiar with that look, that's for sure.

Stuart:

Yeah. And you see them in parades. You see them in, at various events and fundraising that they do. And all of their fundraising is actually for Shriners hospitals for children. Uh, and the Shriners fraternal organization was founded in New York City. Right here where we're sitting. Uh, in 1872. And then 50 years later, um, they started the hospital system. And the hospital system was born out of the polio epidemic. And so, because then the profound impact on children was polio.

And there was no polio vaccine at that point in time. Sure. And so, you know, children were being born with polio and then were not able to walk at all. And so they wanted to do something for children, and they recognized that need. And so our first hospital actually opened in Shreveport, Louisiana, even though we were founded in New York City,

Ernie:

New York. Yeah.

Stuart:

The first hospital ended up being in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1922. And then quickly grew, uh, you know, to the system that exists today. And so it, it literally takes an army. And then the, uh, and then the unpaid heroes are the Shriner. Because one of the things that we do that, that, that is not done elsewhere right. Is if a child and a family cannot afford to come to us, right? Then the Shriners out of the generosity of their own pockets, and through their fundraising, they literally will go pick up that family and drive them to their appointments, sometimes in the Midwest six and seven hours each way in a day. And then they raise millions of dollars for us every year. Tens of millions of dollars for us. Incredible. Every year.

Ernie:

That's incredible. That's incredible.

Stuart:

And so they are an extension of the paid clinical staff. Um, that then enable us to be able to do what we do.

Ernie:

You know, it's all, it's all about people, isn't it? It's all about people and networking and, and communicating, you know, the, the ideas and, and the spirit that we talked about to get things done. Now, uh, we talked about money, which is very important. People have to know that. I have a couple of numbers here. Uh, if people want to donate, I've got 802-768-0007...

Stuart:

Precisely.

Ernie:

And love shriners.org. Uh, people can really get involved in this thing. Now we wanna talk about Giving Tuesday. That's another important project. Uh, explain Giving Tuesday to us.

Stuart:

So Giving Tuesday as a movement was actually founded, of course, like most everything else here in New York City.

Ernie:

Right.

Stuart:

And giving Tuesday is a day when during the holiday season that charities all across the country, us included, put a hyper focus on the need for folks to support charitable organizations. And the great work that, you know, that tens of thousands of millions of charitable organizations in the US provide every year. And so it's a way for us during the busy holiday season, um, for charities to raise their hand and say, you know, we're important too. And in the season of giving, we want everybody to consider a gift in addition to what they're doing for their friends and family. And loved ones. Consider something for charity as well. And so we have a special focus on Giving Tuesday as well, December 3rd. And this year we are, um, we're thrilled and blessed to be partnering with WABC.

Ernie:

Yep.

Stuart:

We're happy to have it. And a great campaign that we're gonna be doing with you here on site. And, uh, and then bringing attention to Shriners Children's and the work that we provide to provide care, you know, for children and also how people can get involved with us. I love it.

Ernie:

So we're walking down December three. We're gonna have a great time together, that's for sure. Give you all the publicity that you need. Uh, make sure that our, our, our people are listening and, and respond to it. Uh, the number again, I wanna make sure it's out there. 802-768-0007. We're gonna put it up on the screen and love shriners.org. Uh, you know, so many wonderful things. Uh, and we talk about the future. 'cause everybody looks ahead and say, okay, what's next? Um, we talked about hope, and we're looking to see all of the wonderful research that's being done. What does the future look like in terms of being able to help our children even more than we're doing it today?

Stuart:

So, uh, research is something that we've been doing for, since almost the very beginning of our organization. And that research is done by us, but it's also done in partnership with our other academic medical centers as well, where our physician researchers are working with those researchers at those places as well. And so, if you look back through the history of our research program, we were early pioneers in skin, skin grafting for children who are burn patients.

Artificial skin for, you know, for in creating actually new skin that grows where the burn, you know, the skin had been burned off, uh, a child. And then now we are getting into research where, what is the best way for us to apply, uh, treatments to children that can reduce pain, reduce treatment cycle, uh, and then allow that child to then go on and live the life of a child as quickly as possible. And then the other side of our research enterprise is genomics, where we are really focusing on what are the genetic causes of the diseases and the conditions that we, that's in...

Ernie:

Important area, isn't it?

Stuart:

Yeah, well, it, the way we look at it is if we can figure out what the genetic marker is, right. Um, that a child is born with, that then causes them to have a condition like Alec or Kaleb, can we do something while the child is being developed in the womb Right. To then potentially prevent that from...

Ernie:

Happening.

Stuart:

Or are there better treatments that we can, that we can have after they're born? Because we know now the genetic markers of that particular condition.

Ernie:

You know, I, I, I marvel because, you know, there's always something new out there. And, and the research that's being done by these people who are so dedicated, uh, and who are learning all the time, isn't that so encouraging when you think about it?

Stuart:

It is.

Ernie:

I mean, think about all the lives that you will change.

Stuart:

It goes back to the word hope. Hope that you used earlier. Because, you know, if, if we fi-- you know, a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, can do something that then is going to either vastly change the way we treat a disease or even prevent something from happening, what's, what's better? What provides more hope than that? Because then we can say, you know, your child may have this when they are born. Hmm. But if we can do something either after they're born or while they're in utero, maybe it can be better.

Ernie:

I certainly hope So, Stuart, uh, I often ask my my guests, uh, a question. And that is, um, if you were to leave a little piece of advice to a young child coming into this world, something that they can hold onto, uh, put it down on a piece of paper and, and maybe open it up in a later time in life, what message would you give to a newborn? Something that you wanna share with them from your experience working with Shriner's children and, and all the things that you've been doing. Look, a piece of advice that you would give a, a young child to remember in life.

Stuart:

Uh, that kindness and a smile go forever.

Ernie

Yeah.

Stuart:

And that if you simply smile and are kind to others and have hope.

Ernie:

Yes.

Stuart:

And those three things combined will get you farther in life than almost anything else.

Ernie:

Oh, I love that. I love that. Now, you, you've got a big audience out here. Okay. People watching, listening. So, Stuart, a a personal appeal. Let let people know exactly what your needs are and how they can help, how, how you can help them, and how they can get involved as well. It's your, it's your stage.

Stuart:

Well, the, the thing, should I, sure. I'll look into the camera. Absolutely. Um, the thing I would say is, if you know of a child or a family that needs our help, uh, they have an orthopedic condition, they've got cleft lip and palate. Um, they've got, they've been burned badly, please reach out to us, uh, the number that Ernie provided, provided before, reach out to us and we will make sure that that child receives the care that they need. Um, if you want to help us provide these, this kind of care to these children, go to love shriners.org or call the 800 number. Um, because we cannot simply cannot do this without philanthropic support. Over three quarters of our operating budget every year is provided through philanthropic support, either outright donations or revenue from our endowment. We cannot treat a kid tomorrow if we do not get gifts today. If, if, if we don't have generosity from donors today, we will not be treating a child tomorrow is literally what it comes down to. Proverb, belief speaking. And so we, we thrive and we exist and we grow. And every every dollar that's given allows us to treat another child, is really what it comes down to.

Ernie:

I love it. I love it. Great message from the heart. I wanna repeat the number. 802-768-0007 love shriners.org. Uh, a sterling organization, wonderful footprint that you have left and continue to leave, uh, throughout the world. And we're so proud to be partnering with you here at WABC 77. Uh, we're looking forward to December three, and a lot of other good things that we're doing. So God bless you and your family. Congratulations Shriners children. So proud to have you on our show. Done a great job. Were you happy being here?

Stuart:

Of course, of course. It was enjoyable. Now, can I share one more story?

Ernie:

Sure, go right ahead.

Stuart:

So there's a young man over in North Jersey not far from where we are sitting today. And this young man, his name is AJ, and, um, when he was born, he was born with a condition that caused his hands and his feet to be out of joint, out of place permanently. Yeah. And, and like we talked about earlier, his parents began to look for where can their brand new child, literally newborn child be treated? And they found us, uh, thankfully they found us. And at 20 days old.

AJ, his, his parents brought AJ down to our Philadelphia hospital and our surgeon there, Dr. Scott Kozen, who was a rockstar, began to work with AJ and his parents to then develop a course of treatment that went on for years and began to, uh, through casting and through, um, and through orthotics and through surgeries. Right. Began to take AJ's feet and hands and turn them in the right direction.

Ernie:

Unbelievable.

Stuart:

That was in 2008. AJ and is now 15 years old. Bright young, uh, middle high school student, um, is doing incredible things, is able to do just about anything any other child can do.

Ernie:

What a great story.

Stuart:

And, you know, and that shows even here in the New York metropolitan area.

Ernie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Stuart:

We have plenty of children who come to our Philadelphia location and get that kind of treatment. And it was over, literally over the past decade that AJ has been helped by us. I love this story, AJ.

Ernie:

We, we applaud you. We applaud all the AJs in this world. Right. Uh, who will be benefiting, you know, from what you offer at Shriners Children's and, and the good work that you're doing. You're doing God's work and you're, you're sharing love and you're caring for, uh, for the people that need that kind of love and attention. Congratulations again. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Stuart. Okay. Good stuff. Stuart Sullivan, come back again. Okay. And we're gonna be part of this thing on December the third.

Stuart:

December 3rd.

Ernie:

Okay. Hope everybody enjoy the show. Stay positive, everybody, and we'll see you next time.