The Childrens Foundation

In 2012, The Childrens Foundation decided to implement an application process to select a pediatrics research project to fund. They created a list of seven criteria: The initiative needs to benefit the health and well-being of a significant number of children, for example, and the funded entity should be a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization or a medical institution. “One of our goals,” said Eleanor Hanson, the foundation’s funding chair, “is to provide seed money for research and projects that are in their infancy.”

Hanson and the foundation chose a research project submitted by Latania Logan, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Rush who plans to research the epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in children. “Drug-resistant bacteria is a very real concern now,” Hanson said. “We realized that much of the work being done now is directed at the adult population, and Dr. Logan’s work is on the heels of it and is directed at children.” The foundation’s target is to provide Logan’s project with $45,000 by November 2015.

The foundation — known until last year as the Children’s Memorial Guild — has “a long history and a long funding history,” Hanson said. The group has been able to launch the research careers of many scientists and doctors since the foundation’s 1964 inception. “Doctors would love to get NIH funding,” Hanson said, “but first they have to show that their work is something worth funding, and, to do that, they have to have money to get something started. That’s a piece of the puzzle that we feel we can fill.”

To help raise the seed money for Logan’s research, The Childrens Foundation hosted its annual luncheon Saturday, March 9, at the Oak Park Country Club. With food tastings from a selection of west suburban restaurants and gift basket raffles, the luncheon featured guest speaker Steve Dolinsky, best known as ABC 7’s “Hungry Hound.”