The Lloyd Nordstrom Children's Hospital Guild is celebrating its 30th anniversary, said this year's president Judy Maleng. With 22 members from both Magnolia and Queen Anne, the guild is one of hundreds in Washington state, and they all raise money for the Seattle hospital, she said.
"But all the money we raise goes for the free medical treatment of children, which is so critical," explained Sheila Magnano, one of the founding members of the local guild.
"The reason we started it is most of us had little ones," said Magnano, who added that the original group of 10 members got together at the Magnolia Co-op Preschool.
They picked the name because Nordstrom had just died, and the founding members thought it would nice to honor the man because his family had been so good to Seattle and the state, she said.
Guild members have also taken their own children to the hospital, said member Marybeth Alwood. "For my own children, that was the only option," she said. "There is no other facility that cares for children the way they do."
Indeed, the Children's Orthopedic Hospital, as it was called then, was formed in 1907 by Anna Clise and 23 female friends because there was no organized treatment for children with muscular and skeletal deformities, according to a history of the hospital.
A founding principle was also providing treatment for children of all races, religions and creeds from families that couldn't afford to pay, the history states.
That's where the guilds came in. The Lloyd Nordstrom Guild holds fall and spring fundraisers, but the group originally hooked up in the 1970s with the Seahawks and their wives, who both modeled clothes at a fashion show at Nordstrom's, which provided the clothes, said guild member Linda Dagg.
"Our ticket price was basically income for the hospital," she said. "They totally underwrote that party," Dagg said of the Nordstrom family.
"We had it for four years," Maleng said of the Seahawks events. But team morale was low in 1981, and the football players bowed out, she remembers. "So we had to find something else."
Since then, the guild members said, they have held rummage sales, donated items to the hospital's thrift store, made finger puppets kids get when blood is drawn from the finger, held cooking demonstrations and stage craft shows where vendors donate a percentage the money they make. The main events these days include fall and spring fundraisers, Maleng said with some pride.
The money has added up over the years, too, and the guild has raised around $400,000 for the hospital since it was founded, Magnano said.[[In-content Ad]]
