Alabama’s Preston Dial and Greg McElroy helped speed the recovery process for Sharon Gardner.For a fun-filled hour on a Friday afternoon, the aches and pains were all but forgotten by many young patients at USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital as the annual visit of the Senior Bowl players was underway.
Players sure to be NFL stars down the road were starring this day in patient rooms, visiting toddlers and teenagers who were at once awed and inspired by these larger-than-life gridiron heroes.
The Senior Bowl organization has gifted more than $536,000 to the hospital. In addition to the annual players’ visits, Senior Bowl support has been used to purchase Starbright World, a private, interactive computer network that allows the hospital’s children to interact with children hospitalized at other leading pediatric care centers across the United States.
Senior Bowl funds have also purchased computers for children receiving treatment in the USS Hope cancer and sickle cell center, along with special golf carts that transport patients and families throughout the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital campus, and extensive renovations to the hospital’s lobby.
Brianna Kennedy had a room full of well-wishers including, from left, Southern Cal’s Kristofer O’Dowd, Georgia’s Clint Boling, East Carolina’s Dwayne Harris, North Carolina’s Kendric Burney and Da’Norris Searcy, and Pittsburgh’s Jason Pinkston.
