‘Make Room for Kids’ Project Donates Multimedia Items to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Patient Units

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC will receive a multimedia makeover thanks to Make Room for Kids, an extension of Austin’s Playroom Project, which is an initiative of the Mario Lemieux Foundation. In addition, the Marty Ostrow Hematology/Oncology Outpatient Center will receive updated games and movies.

In this 8th year of the program, Make Room for Kids will outfit the PICU with gaming and other electronics equipment. They will deliver Xbox consoles, extra controllers, over 400 games and movies, and more. Each room on the unit will be outfitted so that patients have access to gaming and other multimedia resources during their hospital stays.

Make Room for Kids was started by Ginny Montanez formerly of Pittsburgh Magazine and the Pittsburgh blog, That’s Church, who encouraged her readers to donate. To date, the project has raised over $175,000 from blog readers, local Microsoft employees, Genre’s Kids with Cancer Fund, and other generous supporters, which helped to provide over 340 Xbox console units.

Children’s Hospital’s Adolescent Medicine, Cardiology, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), Epilepsy, Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology, Infusion Center, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pediatric Dialysis, Pulmonary, Transplant, and Trauma units, as well as the Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center, have been outfitted with equipment and games by Make Room for Kids in previous years. Many of these units will also receive additional games, movies and updated technology during this visit.

Microsoft’s Pittsburgh office has been one of the driving forces in Make Room for Kids since inception. Their goal has been improving the quality of stay and in some cases care, through technology. Pittsburgh employees and employees from across the country have joined in on the fundraising efforts and contribute roughly half of the money raised for Make Room for Kids. In addition, Microsoft employees install the devices throughout patient units and playrooms in Children’s Hospital. This project is part of the roughly $125 million raised by employee donations and corporate donations in support of nonprofits and schools around the world.