Beck Technology Donates to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Sixty years ago this month, a once-struggling actor’s prayers came true. A pediatric hospital opened its doors in Memphis, Tennessee with the mission to eradicate catastrophic diseases in children and deny no children treatment based on race, religion, or financial status.

This hospital is named after the patron saint of hopeless causes, St. Jude Thaddeus.

Before actor Danny Thomas became one of the most well-known entertainers of his time, he was struggling to find work and support his new family. Danny prayed to St. Jude with the promise, “show me my way in life, and I will build you a shrine.” Soon after, Danny began to get work. His show, The Danny Thomas Show (or Make Room for Daddy), was one of the longest-running comedy shows in U.S. television history.

Shortly after the 1953 debut of the show, Danny and his wife began raising money to build St. Jude hospital. Danny was able to open his ‘shrine’ on February 4, 1962.

“If I Die Tomorrow, I Now Know Why I Was Born.” – Danny Thomas

The mission of St. Jude “…is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family’s ability to pay.” They opened the hospital to “defeat catastrophic diseases” beginning with leukemia.

The most common form of cancer in children is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and at the time, it only had a four percent survival rate. Only four years after St. Jude opened, the first ALL children were taken off therapy successfully, proving that cancer remission could be sustained. In 1984, St. Jude opened the After Completion of Therapy Clinic, the largest long-term pediatric cancer clinic in the world. And in 2006, 96% of St. Jude’s patients survive ALL “using therapy that does not include radiation.”  St. Jude writes, “We’ve helped improve the survival rate of childhood cancer from 20% to 80%. And ALL, the disease with a virtual death sentence in 1962, now has a survival rate of 94 percent.”

Danny and St. Jude truly embody our core values of passion, innovation, and caring and that is why they received our Beck Tech Cares donation this month.

What is Beck Tech Cares?

The purpose of Beck Tech Cares is to come together and celebrate what makes Beck Tech so great—the people! Throughout the month, we each can nominate peers who have embodied our core values of passion, innovation, and caring. At the end of the month, we get together for lunch and read out our accolades to one another. Every month, one Beck Technology team member is nominated to pick an organization where money is donated.

This month, Smriti Dewangan, Report Developer, chose St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Smriti says, “St. Jude Children’s is doing a wonderful job providing free treatment. By helping save kids’ lives, they can grow up to follow their dreams and maybe even change the world. I would like to say thank you to Beck Tech, for allowing me to think about the charity. I believe our contribution will really help them in the treatment process.”

St. Jude shares their research with the world and never charges families for treatment, travel, housing, or food. For every 1 dollar donated, 82 cents goes toward treatment, research, and the future needs of St. Jude.

To donate to St. Jude, click here: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (stjude.org)

 

 

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