Walmart Goes Camping at UF Health Jacksonville For Annual CMN Campaign Kick-Off

August 16, 2018 | By ewilliamson

On Thursday, July 26, local Walmart and Neighborhood Market Stores, made a trip to the LRC Atrium at UF Health Jacksonville for the annual campaign kick-off thrown by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Jacksonville. The theme of this year’s event was “Welcome to Camp Miracles,” and the associates of Walmart were invited to participate in the fun. Walmart has created an amazing legacy within CMN Hospitals by participating in fundraising efforts for more than 30 years and nearly $1 billion. Walmart believes that every kid should have the opportunity to live a better life, without the burden of illness.

During the kick-off, Walmart stores were awarded banners by CMN Hospital’s coordinator Nikki Sabol and CMN Hospital’s director Emily Williamson. The different banners boast the store’s 2017 fundraising total and is an exciting way to celebrate their success and kick-off a new year. Last year’s CMN Hospital’s campaign was paused midway through to allow Walmart stores to support hurricane relief through the American Red Cross. Even with the challenges, local Walmarts ended up with an exciting 9% increase from the previous year’s campaigns and more than $310,900 in donations!

The funds donated through Walmart are used to purchase life saving medical equipment, educational resources and child life activities for both local CMN Hospitals – Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the pediatric programs at UF Health Jacksonville. Recently, the money raised has been used to fund two new neonatal transporters and a brand new, state-of-the-art milk lab for UF Health Jacksonville’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The next project for their funds will be to expand this lab into a milk bank that will allow the hospital to take donations from the community and better serve babies throughout Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.

There were some very special guest speakers honored at the campaign kick-off including Miracle Child Elijah and his family, and Dr. Day, a neonatology doctor who gave an in depth explanation of the benefits of the milk lab and milk bank for UF Health Jacksonville.

The upcoming Walmart campaign will run from August 27 – September 30 2018. Funds are raised primarily through a register campaign where customers contribute $1.00 or more towards CMN Hospitals when they are finishing their transaction at check-out. CMN Hospitals and local Walmart stores are looking forward to another amazing campaign to #HelpKidsLiveBetter.

Walmart associates proudly displaying the amount of funds raised during last year’s campaign.