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Funding the future

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Danny Thomas rallies support for St. JudeThe future at St. Jude
Danny Thomas gets a hug from a St. Jude patient.Danny Thomas with fellow comedian Jack Benny and the architectural drawing of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Then

When Danny Thomas started planning his shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, he knew it would take more than just him to create the place of hope he envisioned.

He enlisted friends, family and the Hollywood community he was now part of to help raise funds to build a hospital where families would never have to pay for treatment. With the premiere of his movie I'll See You in My Dreams in 1951, Danny began the task he would continue for the rest of his life: raising funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Many of those friends who join Danny are now known as legends in the entertainment field. Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Bob Hope, Jack Benny and a host of other stars lent their time and talent to the hospital. They were joined by millions of others from across the country rallying to Danny's cause. Together, they built St. Jude.

 

Now

St. Jude continues to enjoy the support of millions of Americans—and from thousands around the globe—who share Danny's vision of a world where pediatric cancer never claims a child's life.

Originally expected to cost about $1 million a year to operate when it opened, St. Jude now costs $1.8 million a day to run, with nearly all of that coming from public contributions. And 81 cents of each dollar received goes to the current or future need of St. Jude.

Today, the outpouring of support from the public and celebrities has been joined by corporate partners seeking to give back to their communities by making it easy for their customers to help support the hospital's mission: finding cures and saving children.

Initially offering only hope to children and families, the 50 years of support now means the hospital can offer survival to children—and families—suffering from many of the diseases that ended too many lives prior to 1962.

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Future
New generations of children are coming though the doors of St. Jude, looking for the same hope as those first families did in 1962. And to make sure that hope is there, new generations of supporters are needed to support the cutting-edge science and research that will push us closer to realizing Danny's dream that "no child should die in the dawn of life."

Make Danny's legacy your own and become part of the dream.

Donate now.