Utah
Utah founder of Vivint donating $35M to Primary Children’s Hospital
Andie Pedersen holds up a portray from Harper Morgan, who’s a affected person at Main Kids’s Hospital, on Monday in Lehi. Todd and Andie Pedersen donated $35 million to assist assist an initiative to construct the nation’s mannequin well being system for youngsters. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 4-5 minutes
LEHI — A Utah household is donating $35 million to Main Kids’s Hospital within the hope of inspiring others to open their wallets to enhance kids’s well being care within the rising southern finish of Salt Lake County.
Todd Pedersen, founder and chairman of Vivint Sensible Residence, and his spouse Andie Pedersen mentioned they have been on the lookout for the most effective long-term service challenge for his or her household.
After talking to businesswoman and philanthropist Gail Miller about Main Kids’s Hospital’s initiative to enhance well being care for youths, “I believe all of us felt strongly about it, and I believe at that time, it was a no brainer,” Andie Pedersen mentioned Monday because the couple and others introduced the donation on the building web site of the hospital’s new Lehi location.
Katy Welkie, CEO of Intermountain Main Kids’s Hospital and vp of Intermountain Kids’s Well being, famous this yr marks the one hundredth anniversary of the hospital “and its mission to take care of and assist the youngsters of the Mountain West.”
In January 2020, the hospital introduced “a promise to construct a mannequin well being system for youngsters in Utah, within the Mountain West, that might function a job mannequin for all the United States,” she added.
The Lehi location is now midway full, she mentioned, and the constructing is predicted to open in early 2024 to serve kids within the space.
Andie and Todd Pedersen “need one thing that can have an actual, lasting and life-giving influence on children for many years to come back,” Welkie mentioned.
Particulars of how the $35 million can be used weren’t launched on Monday, however hospital officers mentioned they’ll announce extra subsequent month. An inpatient tower on the Lehi hospital can be named for the Pedersens, Welkie famous, explaining that the hospital would not have been attainable with out folks just like the Millers and Pedersens.
Miller mentioned one in every of her household’s guiding rules — although lofty and “in all probability unattainable” — “is to go about doing good till there’s an excessive amount of good on the planet.”
“However there isn’t any hurt in attempting,” she mentioned.
Miller emphasised the significance of the brand new hospital, as new houses “are popping up in every single place” round it.
The hospital will assist sufferers like Harper Morgan, 10, who stood smiling with Miller as she spoke throughout the information convention. Harper was recognized with leukemia when she was 4 years previous.
“She remembers being scared after studying about her prognosis, and when she first began going to Main Kids’s Hospital,” Miller mentioned.
It was a scary expertise for Harper to be on the hospital with folks she did not know. “However the workers instantly put her relaxed, and as soon as she turned accustomed to the docs, she trusted them,” Miller mentioned.
Now Harper is finished along with her most cancers remedy, and “she is stuffed with life and power, and her dad calls her a complete warrior.”
Harper lives close to the brand new hospital, and as soon as the Lehi location opens, she will not have to go to Salt Lake Metropolis if she wants follow-up remedy, Miller famous.
“This new hospital campus is a key piece of a a lot bigger imaginative and prescient, and it should distinguish Utah and the intermountain space as a mannequin for built-in, high-quality pediatric care,” Miller mentioned.
Harper introduced a present to the Pedersens that she mentioned is from her “favourite Halloween film.”
“Ought to we be scared?” Todd Pedersen quipped, earlier than Harper introduced the couple with a portray she created of “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas.”
Andie Pedersen mentioned her household wished to donate their cash to inpatient remedy to allow them to go to sufferers and get to know them.
Todd Pedersen mentioned he tries to emulate what his dad and mom taught him about “doing good for others … not simply financially … how we take care of others, the time we put into others, the respect that we give them.”
“For me, it’s so cool to dwell in a group the place … we have now folks surrounding us eager about the way forward for this group and the way forward for the youngsters of this group with reference to this Main Kids’s Hospital,” he mentioned.
His spouse mentioned they have been at a spot of their lives the place they wished to offer earlier than constructing a brand new dwelling or spending cash in another approach.
“I suppose all of us felt like this could come earlier than the rest in our life,” she mentioned.
Todd Pedersen mentioned they’ve had associates and quick household who’ve benefited from the providers of Main Kids’s Hospital. They wished to set an instance for different households in the neighborhood who’ve been “blessed” financially, of which he famous there are a lot of in Utah’s tech sector.
He described the donation as an funding that serves “as many individuals within the greatest approach attainable.”