Shriners Hospitals for Children

The first step toward adoption of a project to justify existence of the Shrine came in 1914 when the Imperial Council appointed a committee to consider establishment of a tuberculosis sanitarium for afflicted children of Shriners. The proposal was rejected the following year.

Then in 1919, Noble W. Freeland Kendrick proposed that Nobles of the Mystic Shrine should undertake, as an organization, to do something about friendless, orphaned and orthopedically challenged children. Mr. Kendrick, as Imperial Potentate, presented a formal resolution to the Imperial Council in 1920 to establish a Shriners' hospital for orthopedically challenged children. It was adopted unanimously with the provision that the hospital be open to all children, regardless of race or creed, whose parents were unable to pay for the needed surgical, medical and hospital facilities.

The following year, the Imperial Council determined to make it a chain of hospitals, with the first opening in late 1922 at Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1996, at the Imperial Council session in New Orleans, the name was changed to Shriners Hospitals for Children. Today, there are 19 orthopedic units operating as part of the World's Greatest Philanthropy.

Any Shriner can request admittance of a child, provided the child is 18 years of age or younger. Application forms are available from the Temple business office.

All treatment is 100 per cent free. While hospital staffs and surgeons are paid, members of the national Board of Trustees, and local Boards of Governors donate their time and talents free of charge. The Shrine receives no government funds and accepts no insurance payments. Shrine members - and other interested persons - through their gifts, bequests and promotion efforts provided the funds - necessary to support the hospitals.

Our hospital staffs pioneered advances in teaching, research and treatment. Their contributions to medical science have brought improved care for orthopedically challenged children around the world.