Howard Hanna Healing Garden at the new Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

News Story

6/3/2009

Article By: Debbie Donahue

Howard Hanna adds a bit of “green”

to new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

On Tuesday, June 2, 2009 the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation hosted a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Howard Hanna Healing Garden at the new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.

The Howard Hanna Healing Garden is an outdoor, rooftop garden on the sixth floor of the main hospital where patients and families can enjoy fresh air, amazing views and a respite from the medical setting. Even a sick child sometimes needs to go outside. At Children’s, the Hanna Healing Garden is that outdoor oasis. Seasonal flowers in the day and twinkling lights at night will invite patients, families and staff to come play, reflect and retreat from the inevitable stress related to a stay in the hospital.

Children’s Hospital President, Christopher A. Gessner, welcomed everyone to the event with a presentation of “The New Children’s”. Speakers included Mary Jo Dively, Esq., chair, Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees, Dr. Andrew Urbach, Medical Director for Clinical Excellence and Service, Howard W. "Hoddy” Hanna, III, Chairman and CEO of Howard Hanna, and Lou Astorino, principal of the architectural firm, Astorino, which designed the building. A special guest speaker was the mother of a child that had been diagnosed with leukemia on May 25th and was in his ninth day of being at Children’s. She thanked the Howard Hanna group for making the outdoor garden a reality and told of how she had already visited the garden many times and how much it helped her and her son in dealing with being in the hospital so suddenly.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and have been teaming together since 1989 for the Children’s Free Care Fund which assures that needy children from Western Pennsylvania and surrounding area will never be denied the best medical care available.

“All of our offices participate in our fundraising efforts for Children’s Hospitals in their market areas,” proudly said Hoddy Hanna. “Some offices that have golf outings in the summer months, a few that do organized lunches and house tours in the fall, but absolutely all of our offices hold annual “Choo Choo Chow Chow” holiday luncheons beginning in November and continuing through the end of the year – all with the common purpose of raising as much money as we can for Children’s Hospitals. So very many of our sales associates, staff and management give so much of their time and energy to this year after year, I continue to be amazed by this on-going support, and from members of the community. It’s because the people of this area care so deeply about one another as well as the quality of life here, that this great city is indeed the best in the nation.”

In 2008, Howard Hanna raised more than $577,000 in their offices across PA, OH, NY and WV for a total of almost $5 million during the past twenty years for Children’s Hospitals.
Howard Hanna is proud to become a permanent part of the new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in bringing some “green”, in the form a beautiful healing play garden, to the urban hospital campus of The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.