Walking into the Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care is a jaw-dropping experience. Yes, each detail reflects state-of-the-art design filtered through clinician and family input, and the building is without a doubt beautiful.

But something else triggers awe: 4,122 donors who believed so strongly in providing the best possible outpatient care for children that they put their money where their heart is and contributed to the Building Hope Campaign. A $50 million leadership gift from the Buerger family started things off in spectacular fashion.

Among other donors was Clemence Huml, a CHOP employee in Housekeeping, who signed up for automatic payroll deductions to inscribe a paving stone. The Walt Disney Company stepped up to provide a Wait. Play. Learn. space. Parent Clarence Brenan, whose sons are treated at CHOP, made a pledge that will support the Gastroenterology/Allergy area on the sixth floor. Evelyn Prendergast, all of 8 years old, saved part of her allowance, held a yard sale, and asked friends and family to contribute so that she could donate to inscribe a paving stone.

Each and every donor — from the smallest donation to the largest — is important to making the Buerger Center a reality.

“The collective generosity of so many people is inspiring,” says Stuart Sullivan, executive vice president and chief development officer at CHOP. “We’re closing in on our goal of raising $100 million in support of the Buerger Center. There are still opportunities for donors to make their mark.”

The first patients arrived in July, when the Center for Childhood Communication and the Division of Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat) moved onto the fifth floor. Each month, additional specialties — strategically organized in related groups that maximize efficiency by sharing clinical space — have welcomed children and their families to the Buerger Center. 

As of Nov. 1, total contributions have topped $95 million. With those gifts, we have:

Buerger Center interior

  • Named nearly 200 individual rooms and interactive spaces, benches, gardens and water features in and around the building
  • Inscribed more than 900 pavers on the plaza with donors’ names and messages
  • Embossed more than 900 names on the glass railing of the Leonard B. Kahn Discovery Walkway (pictured above)
  • Listed the 1,351 employee donors on a special display located where the bridge from Children’s Seashore House connects to the Buerger Center

As more of the floors are occupied, more families will experience unparalleled pediatric care in the most advanced facility. The construction continues, and you can be part of it.