crystal children

Avera McKennan officials suggest a new partnership will help it raise more money for its existing children's hospital.

Avera Children's Hospital is joining with more than 50 other children's hospitals across the country to form Together for Kids, a nonprofit fundraising foundation.

The foundation will raise money nationally for its member hospitals as the costs of health care continue to rise, said Lori Popkes, director of women's and children's services at Avera McKennan.

"It came about basically via conversation of the growing needs of funding for children's health care but not a lot of options to do that in an organized fashion," Popkes said. "It's really a nice opportunity for us to get involved at the national level."

The 112-bed children's hospital on the Avera McKennan campus includes inpatient and outpatient general care and specialty clinics, as well as intensive care units for newborns and children. The off-site behavioral health program also is included as part of the children's hospital services. The number of children served annually by Avera Children's continues to grow, Popkes said.

Money raised nationally by Together for Kids will be divided among the member hospitals, while cash collected at home will go directly to Avera Children's, Popkes said. Avera McKennan will pay an annual administrative fee of $15,000 to Together for Kids, and all money raised will benefit pediatric programs, she said.

The member hospitals, which include the national Shriners' children's hospitals and other medical centers, also might join resources to help fight pediatric conditions such as childhood obesity, said Together for Kids board chairwoman Crystal Hinson Miller of North Carolina Children's Hospital at the University of North Carolina.

"Together for Kids has been formed to rally more resources to make America's kids healthier and safer," Hinson Miller said in a statement.

Pediatrics relies on national fundraising efforts and donations because it's not a highly profitable area of medicine, said Larry McAndrews, director of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions.

Avera McKennan receives help for the children's hospital from annual fundraisers and money given to the hospital's foundation.

The foundation's annual Big Grape wine-tasting fundraiser brought in $167,620 this year for the children's hospital, up 15 percent from 2006 and double what was raised in 2002.

Together for Kids is similar to the Children's Miracle Network, a fundraising organization with 170 nonprofit children's hospitals as members.

Sanford Children's Hospital has been the Children's Miracle Network hospital for this region since 1996 and has raised $8 million since.

Sanford USD Medical Center pays an annual administrative fee to the Children's Miracle Network. The fee, which comes from the hospital rather than from fundraising dollars, amounted to $50,000 last year, said Deb Koski, director of development for the Sanford Health Foundation.
A steady flow of family members, friends and well-wishers streamed to the sanctuary of Speaks Chapel Thursday to pay respect to Sam and Lindsey Porter.

Mourners were greeted by a video slide show of the kids playing amongst themselves, a few playmates and their pet bulldog, Bossie. Family and friends donned buttons with a smiling Sam and Lindsey posing together, Bossie lovingly sandwiched between them. Several school-aged children and young adults wore a mixture of yellow, blue and purple ribbons to honor Sam and Lindsey's memories.

Sam and Lindsey's pictures - those engaging shots so famously attached to the missing/endangered children posters across the country - were blown up to poster size. Those images stood high above the medium-sized caskets that held the children's bodies. Lindsey's to the left, Sam's to the right. A collage of pictures from the children's lives flanked each casket.

"Those pictures sure brought back a lot of memories," said Rena Davis, the Porter kids' aunt. "It brings on somewhat a somber and reflective mood, but the family will get through it."

The children's mother, Tina Porter, was bombarded with a constant barrage of condolences, hugs and handshakes. Hundreds signed the chapel's guestbook. Tears flowed throughout the four-hour visitation. Emotions seemed to simmer, just below the boiling point.

"I know where Tina's coming from and what she's going through," said Tina Porter's friend, a visibly shaken Michelle Frye, adding she tragically lost her brother, Billy James, when he was 27. "I was totally devastated when I lost my brother. But to be here, preparing for a baby's funeral? That's just not right."

Sam and Lindsey Porter were missing since 2004. Their remains, found Sept. 8 in a shallow grave in a wooded area in Sugar Creek, were positively identified through dental records.

The cumulative impact the case has had on the region, let alone the Eastern Jackson County community, was evident. So says Anna Rea, nee Anna Kipper, who traveled nearly 30 miles from Roeland Park, Kan. to lend support.

Rea's daughter, Crystal Kipper, disappeared at age 18 from Platte County, Mo. Rea said the investigation of her daughter's disappearance led her to believe Crystal was murdered. The suspect held in connection with the disappearance killed himself in jail before authorities could get information on Crystal whereabouts. Crystal's body has never been found.

"I'm here to tell her to keep plugging along," Rae said, adding she had never met Tina Porter until Thursday. "Although there are no adequate words you could ever tell a person who is going through this, I just wanted to let her know she is not alone."

A funeral for SaDebbie Schrade of Fort Wright, Ky. has always preached to her 16-year-old son, Will Lalka, about the importance of saving money.

When he was younger and received monetary gifts and an allowance, he set half of it aside in savings. He has continued that practice since getting a job last spring at the Remke Markets store in Crescent Springs.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I'm going off to college in two years," says Will, a junior at Villa Madonna Academy in Villa Hills, Ky. "and I figured if I have some money budgeted for books and things like that, it'll be easier for my mom."

Crystal Faulkner is a certified public accountant and financial adviser with Cooney Faulkner & Stevens, the Cincinnati firm that founded Accounting for Kids Day, a statewide financial literacy program. She says parents can encourage their teens to save by matching some or all of the money they stock away.
It's also important for young people to see how their money can work for them through savings, Faulkner says. When her oldest child was a teen, a portion of his earnings was invested in a Roth IRA. Faulkner explained to him that if he contributed $2,000 a year from age 16 to 22, his investment would grow to about $1 million by retirement age (assuming an average return of 10 percent).

"It's cool for a kid to get a (financial) statement in the mail and watch their money work for them," she says. "It's all about the magic of compounding."

Some of Will's earnings are invested in mutual funds. But he's a teen, after all, so he allowed himself to splurge on a new Xbox video game console this summer. "Everybody likes rewards," he says.

Helping children distinguish between "needs" and "wants" should begin when they're young and continue through the teen years, Faulkner says.

"When people get in trouble with spending, it's usually impulse buying," she says. She suggests parents help their teens with budgeting, such as for back-to-school clothes.

"Give them magazines and fliers out of the paper. Let them find the best bargains. It gives you a great opportunity to converse about a budget and (explain) why it's important."

It's also important that parents clarify what they'll pay for, and what the teen is responsible for.

Faulkner suggests that teens keep track of their money by opening a checking account and keeping it balanced. Parents should encourage them to make regular deposits. "Make them accountable for how every dollar is spent."

Overall, Schrade says her son "does a really good job of budgeting and curbing his I-really-want-to-buy-this (mentality)." She's gradually giving him more financial responsibility. She provided him with a car and $50 a month gas allowance; soon he'll be paying for insurance, gas, tags and the like.

"I don't always want to (save)," Will says. But he acknowledges that "saving helps, big time."

Watch teens' plastic
Almost 11 percent of 17-year-olds in the U.S. have a credit card, and 45 percent have a checking or debit card, according to a nationwide poll of 1,512 teens conducted last fall for Junior Achievement Worldwide
A sign that the cashless society is coming? Maybe. But there are differing views about whether young people should carry plastic.

"Plastic doesn't represent real money to kids, not even to kids who are in high school or college," says Janet Bodnar, author of "Raising Money Smart Kids." She prefers that young people carry cash, so that they "feel the light wallet" after they've shelled out bucks for, say, a new video game.

But Neale S. Godfrey says there are advantages to teens having a preloaded debit card. Among them: parents can "see how (teens) are spending and if they're doing it responsibly."

And the charges might be worth it if teens are learning to make responsible choices, keep track of purchases and stay within a budget, Godfrey says
m and Lindsey was held this morning at Noland Road Baptist Church, 4505 South Noland Road. A private burial followed at Lobb Cemetery.