PPAI staff recently visited Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas to deliver donations to the Center for Excellence in Hand Disorders. The center provides specialized care for children with hand and upper limb anomalies and children who need complex reconstruction following trauma. Mandi Valdez and T. Burell Poston, development officers at the hospital, treated the PPAI visitors to a tour of the facility, which cares for over 70,000 children annually.

PPAI staff members Natalie Clark, membership director; Khris Harris, expositions operations manager; Amy Bramhall, marketing manager; and Terry Ramsay, PPB associate editor, delivered boxes of socks and stuffed animals.

The socks, hand decorated by PPAI staff, fit over children’s casts to keep them clean and add a bit of fun. “We send two socks home with every hand center patient,” says Valdez. “At one point, the staff used to decorate the socks, but we really don’t have the time. All of them are donated now, and it’s a definite ongoing need.”

The stuffed animals, which were provided by supplier Douglas Company (PPAI 233600), will be gifted to patients and visiting siblings.

“It’s so important to have things that we can give to the families that have a personal touch,” says Valdez. “We couldn’t do it without the support of the community.”