United Heritage Charity Foundation, the charity organization of United Heritage Credit Union, has donated $25,000 to the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas' Building for the Future expansion.
"The United Heritage Charity Foundation understands the importance of helping children and their families in their greatest times of need and believes strongly that this donation will be put to great use at Dell Children's Medical Center for that purpose," said May Lofgreen, chairman of the United Heritage board of directors, in a news release.
The Clarke family of Austin has agreed to match the foundation's donation, and in total, $50,000 was donated to the hospital's expansion project, which includes a three-story tower with 72 new beds. The expansion is expected to be completed in May.
Chelsea Jordan, director of corporate and community services for the credit union, said the foundation has directed the funds toward the purchase of the magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain mapping technology, which creates a noninvasive 3-D map of a person's brain activity and helps doctors treat children with epilepsy, brain tumors or traumatic injuries. Jordan said this is only the seventh instance of MEG equipment at a pediatric hospital in the United States.
United Heritage Charity Foundation was created in 2003, and to date, the foundation has donated more than $1.1 million. Jordan said the foundation has been supporting Dell Children's for many years, and it was involved when the hospital was first built in 2007. The mission of the foundation includes supporting education initiatives and medical research.
"One of our areas of focus is on helping children and families. It's part of [the foundation's] mission," she said.