The Memorial Tournament week crowns many winners: the winners of its Professional Golfers Association tournament, the Nationwide Invitational pro-am, FORE! Miler race and more. But the biggest winners of all, year after year, are the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, its staff and, most importantly, its patients.
The unit is the primary beneficiary of the charitable spirit of the Tournament and its hosts, Jack and Barbara Nicklaus. Aptly named after the golf event that has given it so much, the Memorial Tournament Neonatal Intensive Care Unit cares for the tiniest and sickest patients in the hospital, and the partnership, which dates back to the first Tournament in 1976, has allowed advances in care that have benefited the lives of thousands of babies.
Photos courtesy of Nationwide Children's Hospital
The NICU benefits because the Tournament, Nationwide Children’s and the Nicklaus Children’s Healthcare Foundation formed an alliance in 2010 to enable the Tournament’s support of the hospital and the NICU to exist long-term.
Nationwide Children’s certainly holds up its end of the bargain, too.
While golf is an individual sport, Nationwide Children’s involvement is a team effort. In 2015, more than 3,000 volunteers helped transform the Tournament into the special event that it is, and Niki Shafer, vice president of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation, says it isn’t difficult to find that many volunteers.
“We have a very strong culture of promoting service to others at Nationwide Children’s,” she explains.
These volunteers happily fill 19 different roles at the tournament, but Shafer says there are a few roles that are the most sought-after.
“Typically volunteers like to drive the courtesy cars, work in the sandwich shop and help compile and distribute the credentials,” she says.
Nationwide Children’s section chief of neonatology, Dr. Edward Shepherd, sees the partnership from two sides: his ability to care for patients and the patients (and their families) themselves.
“This partnership has provided us with incredible resources that allow us to care for our babies and families better each day,” Shepherd says.
A recent tangible benefit of the partnership was the purchase of highly specialized webcams that allow families, most of whom cannot be with their babies all day every day, to see their little ones and interact with the nursing staff 24 hours a day, even when they are at home or work. For parents of children in the NICU, this connection cannot be overstated.
Additionally, Shepherd cites the exposure that Nationwide Children’s gets during the international coverage of the Memorial Tournament as an enormous benefit.
“This exposure has allowed parents from across the country and around the world to learn of our outstanding care, and some of these parents have come to our NICU for lifesaving treatments (for their children),” Shepherd says. “This partnership, in other words, has literally saved lives.”
The Nicklauses’ involvement with the tournament and the hospital isn’t in name only. In addition to touring the NICU to learn more about the work being done and the help the babies are receiving, the couples present the Nicklaus Youth Spirit Award as part of the Legends Luncheon that takes place during tournament week. The award is given according to Tournament’s website, “to a patient or family who in some way has demonstrated a strong, driving spirit in overcoming obstacles, an unwavering optimistic outlook and a strong conviction for their connection to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.” This year marks the sixth annual award.
While there are many people involved who deserve praise for making the partnership between the Tournament and Nationwide Children’s work, Shepherd credits the Nicklaus family for setting this unique partnership in motion.
“Their visionary leadership has provided the Memorial Tournament NICU with unprecedented resources that allow us to care for any baby no matter their family’s ability to pay,” Shepherd says. “We are so grateful for their faith in us.”
Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
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