Mario Lemieux Foundation

Programs: Ms. Lemieux expanded the foundation's scope in 2000 when she created austin's playroom project following personal experience while caring for their premature infant son at magee-women's hospital. As she and & mr. Lemieux were tending to their son, there was no place to provide a comfortable calming environment and engage his siblings. It was then that ms. Lemieux devised this idea to someday raise funds for playrooms at area hospitals. Since inception, 34 playrooms, have been established, with an additional three planned. In this fiscal year, two new austin's playrooms were opened, and maintenance was performed on 17 rooms.

the foundation also supports blood cancer research in both the clinic and lab. In 2014, the foundation established the mario lemieux center lymphoma center for children and young adults at children's hospital of pittsburgh of upmc. This center, the first of its kind, treats patients with difficult-to-treat and rare childhood lymphomas. The center has increased access to care and cutting-edge treatments for all childhood lymphomas, while also bringing together a critical volume of patients with rare lymphomas for research studies that can have had a global impact on care. The annual commitment to this $2. 5m project is $357,000.

the foundation is specifically interested in hodgkin's disease research, and supports research and patient care at the mario lemieux center for blood cancers, located at the hillman cancer center at the university of pittsburgh cancer institute. The state-of-the-art center at the hillman cancer center provides comprehensive care for patients with blood diseases with a focus on a personalized treatment experience. The annual commitment to this $3. 5m project is $350,000.

the foundation is committed to patient care and family support at the children's home of pittsburgh and lemieux family center. The lemieux family center is designed to be a home away from home where families are given the opportunity to spend one or more nights in a private bedroom with their child. While nesting, families can practice providing care on their own with guidance from the pediatric specialty hospital onsite. There is also an austin's playroom as well as several play spaces provided by the foundation in this facility. The annual commitment to this $1m project is $200,000.