Georgetown Pediatric Gala History
In 2000, Mary Hoobler founded the Georgetown Pediatrics Gala to acknowledge and thank the staff of the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital (GUH) who had cared for her husband Jim.
In her own words, Mary decided the best way I could repay these exceptional professionals and celebrate the excellence that lives at Georgetown, was to raise funds for Georgetown's critically important community pediatrics programs. She has been a friend of GUH and the Department of Pediatrics ever since.
Chief, Department of Pediatrics
David B. Nelson, MD, MSc
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Georgetown University Hospital's Pediatric Gala web site. Over the past several years I have been impressed by the outpouring of support that we have received from individuals, prominent corporations and businesses and from foundations that play a leading role in helping us better serve community children. The support received has provided health care and services to hundreds of children and their families in some of the most underserved neighborhoods in the District of Columbia.
Georgetown University Children's Medical Center continues to be the leader in providing advanced pediatric healthcare for the children of the District of Columbia in a setting that shows concern for the whole family. Georgetown has long recognized that a key mission for an academic medical center is to provide state-of-the-art, cutting edge medical technology delivered with compassion and understanding for our patients and their families. Our programs provide the most advanced treatments but do so in the context of cura personalis, care for the whole person, recognizing that technology alone is not sufficient in the care of our children.
In addition, Georgetown also recognizes that its mission includes providing the same high quality healthcare to children who have limited access to medical care and specialized services; services which can only be obtained at an academic medical center. This mission has been carried out through direct service initiatives in the community and through the training of the next generation of young physicians and other health professionals who will ultimately serve the community. Long-term efforts at Georgetown include the world-renowned Center for Child and Human Development, founded in 1975; the KIDS Mobile Medical Clinic, founded in 1992 as the first provider of its kind in DC; adolescent medicine services to high-risk teens; and the KIDS Clinic for the Deaf.
We are indebted to the individuals, corporations, and foundations that share our goal for providing care for children who are disadvantaged in the District of Columbia and surrounding area. It is my sincere hope that you feel a great sense of satisfaction in knowing that your generous support will touch so many young lives in a very meaningful way.