I Visited Primary Children's Hospital Last Week...

As many of you know, I am currently working with author Gary R. Motte to promote the book that he wrote (and I illustrated and published) called "The Little Red Fergie." This is a children's book about a red Ferguson tractor that goes through various owners and situations and perseveres through the good and the bad. Basically, this little tractor goes through life. 

The promotion we are running (now through Saturday of this week) is that 10% of every sale we make for the Little Red Fergie will be donated to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. We were also able to donate 10 signed copies of the book, and 50 related bookmarks and stickers.

We chose Primary Children's Hospital because the author of this book and his family have received care through Primary Children's for years and years, starting when Gary was very young due to a heart condition. Primary Children's Hospital has also played many roles for my own friends and family throughout my life so far, and we both wanted to give back. We thought it would be especially appropriate to run this promotion during Heart Health Awareness Month.

Thanks to this promotion we're running, we had the awesome opportunity of visiting Primary Children's Hospital late last week for a tour of the hospital. This was... truly an incredible experience. Most often, when someone visits a hospital, it's because they or someone they care for is sick or injured, and because of that, their focus is planted on the person receiving hospital care. To be able to visit the hospital outside of these circumstances and really learn some of the things the hospital has to offer its patients was a phenomenal and unique experience. In today's blog post, I want to highlight some of the incredible things I learned (that I did not know, but absolutely loved) about Primary Children's Hospital. 

​#1. Primary Children's Hospital offers multiple services outside of the regular scope of care to its patients, including...

• A school zone where kids can go to learn and grow during their stay at the hospital as a part of the Family Support Services Department. This is so important! There are a handful of professionals who work in the School Zone to provide educational support to these kiddos who have to be out of school, sometimes for long periods of time. I also learned that they connect with schools around the state to provide support and help facilitate an easier transition back to a regular school environment. As someone who has taught in the classroom and now supports teachers and students with their reading, I cannot stress how valuable this kind of support can be. I also learned that they give books to kids for free while they're staying at the hospital. 
•  Sophie's Place - a music therapy space that opens up to kid centers where kids can go to learn music, record things, and heal in a whole different way. I learned that the professionals in this area provide support like music classes, holding little concerts for patients, inviting celebrities to come and visit, and even allowing families space and opportunity to record messages for their loved ones staying at the hospital... 
• Seacrest Studios, which broadcasts various activities and things to the rooms throughout the hospital so kids can engage and be connected even from the confines of their hospital rooms.
• Ronald McDonald Foundation Family Rooms, which provides a space for families to stay and even eat while their children are at the hospital.
• Kids Clubhouse, which is a space where siblings of patients can receive care from child life specialists while their siblings stay at the hospital.
• Financial assistance to families.
• ... and a host of other support services.

#2. When we met with the director of cardiology, I also learned that Primary Children's Hospital has around 500 heart care providers dedicated to their patients across disciplines, and that they have a multi-disciplinary team that sits together to analyze data to ensure their practices and procedures are as effective as possible. I learned that the hospital is nationally ranked, currently sitting at number 12 on the list, and that technological advancements have allowed the professionals here to increase procedure effectiveness while reducing stay time, risk, and invasiveness of their surgeries. 

#3. Much of the services that the hospital offers, like the School Zone, Sophie's Place, and financial assistance (just to name a few) are made possible because of philanthropic donations. All these amazing things they are able to do and supports they are able to provide patients and families are due to donations from regular people, just like me. I did not know that before I visited!

Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed, grateful, and humbled to have been able to take a tour of the hospital and learn more about the services and supports they have available for their patients and families. 

Thank you for reading this blog post! I know I usually share writing-related content on this blog, and this post is not directly related to writing. But I was able to learn all of this because of my connection to writing and this promotion we're running. 

If you would like to help us make a difference for these kiddos, you can still purchase your copy of The Little Red Fergie for the rest of this week. This promotion will close on February 28th, 2026. If you would also like to look into donating directly to the hospital, I would recommend visiting this link: https://intermountainhealthcare.org/locations/primary-childrens-salt-lake-city/give 

​Reach out if you have any questions, and have a wonderful rest of your February! Happy Heart Health Awareness Month!