BY LUKE PRUETT

Featured in vol 7, issue 3: healing

Le Bonheur’s Beginnings

Le Bonheur is a French phrase meaning “happiness” – a phrase that lends itself quite naturally as the name for a club dedicated to knitting and sewing for the benefit of others. So in 1923, a local band of women gathered together to do just that, naming themselves Le Bonheur Club. This small but powerful sewing group began making clothes for children living in Memphis’ Leath Orphanage. What came from their pursuit of happiness for children is incredibly extraordinary in impact and scope.

Over time, the Le Bonheur Club’s members' hearts grew more moved by the needs of the orphanage’s children, particularly in the arena of health and wellbeing. A collaboration was born between pediatricians of the Pediatric Society and knitters from the Le Bonheur Club. The Club began raising funds to help with the medical care for the orphanage’s children, and the joint effort was a great success. In1944, when $2 million dollars were needed to fund a hospital dedicated solely to children, the Pediatric Society knew exactly whom to call.

Through the hard work and selfless generosity of many, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital opened in 1952. When Le Bonheur officially opened its doors as the first hospital dedicated to children in the region, the Le Bonheur Club President said, “The doors of Le Bonheur will never be found closed and will forever hereafter be open to those who come in need, seeking its help.”

A Thriving Region: West Tennessee and The Hub City

Meanwhile, in West Tennessee, Jackson is known as the Hub City. You recognize this branding quickly when driving around town. From Hub City Brewing downtown to the Hub City Bicycle Co. in Hamilton Hills shopping center, the moniker is everywhere. Google “Hub City Jackson,” and you’ll quickly be directed to insurance, tax, travel, deli, and realty services bearing that name. But why do these businesses want to communicate they are here to serve a broader market than just Jackson? The answer is in the phrase itself. A hub is the central part of a wheel, “from which the spokes radiate.” Oxford’s dictionary elaborates. The wheel could never be propelled without its hub. But without the surrounding spokes, barrel, lug nuts and tire tread the hub would be forever grounded and immobile. The hub is dependent on the wellbeing of the entirety of the wheel, and vice versa.

Jackson businesses thrive and flourish when West Tennessee residents from Bells in Crockett County, Humboldt and Milan in Gibson County, Henderson in Chester County, Lexington in Henderson County, Huntington in Carroll County, Brownsville in Haywood County and beyond are frequenting their establishments and engaging with their core products and services. Conversely, Jacksonians experience their greatest economic and social experience when these surrounding cities and counties offer high-quality goods, services, and community experiences. Our flourishing is built on interdependence. This interdependent reality is what makes West Tennessee so special and the basis for Le Bonheur Children’s anchoring so many of its world-renowned health and community services in the region.

Le Bonheur’s Commitment to Jackson and West Tennessee

Today, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital is a U.S. News and World Report top-ranked Children’s Hospital. And since its founding, Le Bonheur has provided expert pediatric care to residents of Jackson and West Tennessee. More than 14,000 West Tennessee children receive medical care from Le Bonheur each year. More than 4,000 families from West Tennessee have stayed at FedExFamilyHouse, a home-away-from-home for Le Bonheur families, at no cost while their child received care at the hospital.

This high level and volume of care has been expanding in recent years due to the Hub City’s growth alongside the medical services of Le Bonheur.

The Le Bonheur Children’s Outpatient Center on Vann Drive provides expert analysis and care in such areas as neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, dermatology, endocrinology, and 14 other medical subspecialties. And in the spring of 2022, Le Bonheur Children’s will officially begin collaborating with West Tennessee Healthcare to provide inpatient pediatric services within Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. More than ever Le Bonheur is locally present for children in West Tennessee in need of medical intervention and care.

Le Bonheur Community Services in West Tennessee

At the center of that dedication to serve children and families throughout West Tennessee is Le Bonheur’s utilization of the Hub City as a launching point to care for 13 counties surrounding Jackson. Le Bonheur’s Community Outreach division is at the heart of its mission to serve every child. The Community Outreach team at Le Bonheur pursues this mission through the Le Bonheur on the Move (LOM) mobile health unit, nurse health education, and behavioral health care navigation.

Le Bonheur on the Move is a mobile medical unit that travels in rural West Tennessee to provide affordable, accessible healthcare services for children and to connect them with a medical home. This is accomplished by partnering with school systems who have identified a need for their children. LOM supports the efforts of primary care providers by identifying the health care needs of children, offering preventative health services and education, and linking children to appropriate medical and/or behavioral health services. LOM also refers children who have or are at risk for developing a chronic condition to RN Health Education. Registered nurse health educators provide education about healthy living and make referrals to primary care or specialists when needed.

Le Bonheur on the Move team members focus on caring for children on their level — getting to know their backgrounds and healthcare needs and providing access to care for children who are hurting from physical pain or relational loss. Recently, the LOM team cared for a child whose parents had very recently passed away in a vehicle accident. In coordination with the child’s guardians, the Le Bonheur Community Outreach team was able to connect the child with licensed social workers who specialize in helping children emotionally navigate incurred trauma. Just like the Leath Orphanage children cared for nine decades ago by Le Bonheur Club and The Pediatric Society, the Le Bonheur Community Outreach team is proactively pursuing high-risk children lacking access to holistic health care services. Whether it’s providing health education in a compelling, fun way to combat childhood obesity or discovering untreated physical symptoms causing pain, discomfort, or even a threat to their lives, the Le Bonheur Community Outreach team is crucial for the health care of hundreds of West Tennessee children.

Le Bonheur Community Outreach’s Behavioral Health Care Navigation is a school-based program. The goal of this program is to identify the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of children, offer interventions to address needs in the home and school environments, and link children to appropriate community resources. Every day the Behavioral Health Care Navigation team walks with students referred to them for verbal and physical aggression, low motivation in school, anxiety, grief, and many other concerns. Every day the Le Bonheur team gets to celebrate children who move from these referrals into academic success and emotional stability through intervention and care.

West Tennessee Champions for Children

West Tennesseans deserve the very best for their children and their community. Jackson’s role as the Hub City makes it a catalyst for community care. Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital's role in caring for children for seven decades makes it a catalyst for healing and treatment throughout the Hub City and its surrounding counties. Jackson businesses understand the interdependent nature of West Tennesseans and Jacksonians — and Le Bonheur understands the interdependent nature of collaboration for health care excellence. These collaborations with regional schools, West Tennessee Healthcare, and young patients all over West Tennessee aren't possible without local businesses and individuals partnering to become champions for children. What started as a sewing circle to care for a few children has become a world leader in pediatric care servicing tens of thousands of children from West Tennessee each year. Together, Le Bonheur and the Hub City can do great things for West Tennessee.

Luke Pruett is a Foundation Director at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and a founder of Our Jackson Home. Born in Blytheville, AR Luke moved to Jackson, TN to attend Union University. In 2015, Luke graduated from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and spent the next 6 years as the Recruiting Director at City Leadership in Memphis. Luke’s wife April still works at City Leadership and they split time living in Memphis and Jackson with their three boys Thomas, Liam, and Elliot. Luke’s work at Le Bonheur centers around connecting business and community leaders with funding avenues to support world class children’s healthcare.

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