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CHARTER AUXILIARY: The inaugural Auxiliary supported improvements at the newly opened Con Home, with the first 25 members contributing $12 each a year. It held its first rummage sale in Menlo Park in the 1920s, beginning a tradition that continued on the Stanford campus for many years and lives on today at pop-up locations.
2019 Auxiliary presidents. Top Row: Kelly Burns, Kay Harrison, Nancy Larsson, Marilyn Anderson, Pat Barr, and Lisa Cole. Bottom Row: Elaine Lubich, Betty Barnes, Bliss Ream Johnson, and Janet Self.
ALLIED ARTS GUILD AUXILIARY: In the 1930s, Garfield and Delight Merner purchased land in Menlo Park near the Con Home for a Spanish-style artisans’ guild. The Allied Arts Guild, managed by the Allied Arts Guild Auxiliary, is a beautifully landscaped property housing gardens, shops, and a restaurant. For many years this Auxiliary, previously known as the Woodside-Atherton Auxiliary, also hosted the immensely popular Tally Ho Horse Show and Party at the Menlo Circus Club.
PALO ALTO AUXILIARY: (Pictured: 2018 Performance of The Nutcracker.) The Palo Alto Auxiliary launched in 1931 during the Great Depression. Over the years, the Auxiliary hosted American Girl doll fashion shows, operated the restaurant at Allied Arts Guild, and published Tastes and Traditions, a cookbook that became a local classic. The Auxiliary currently organizes Restaurants with Heart (a monthly benefit at Peninsula restaurants), The Nutcracker Tea, and an annual Garden Party.
ROTH AUXILIARY: (Pictured: The first purchase at the opening of the new Gift Shop in 2018.) Named for Mildred Hayes Roth, who devoted 50 years to supporting sick children, the Roth Auxiliary formed to manage the Gift Shop when Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital opened in 1991. Last year, Roth Auxiliary members cut the ribbon on an expanded Gift Shop in the hospital’s new Main building. Four times larger than the original space, the current shop offers newborn items, toys and balloons, hospital logo wear, jewelry, scarves, snacks, and much more. All proceeds are donated to the hospital.
SAN FRANCISCO AUXILIARY: (Pictured: Participants at a benefit event in 1952.) In 1931, the San Francisco Auxiliary was founded and quickly became a prestigious group, with a waiting list of young women. It initially organized an annual barn dance at the Palace Hotel, operated a bakery, and staged fashion shows with the city’s major department stores. Since 1953, it has hosted the enormously successful Jewel Ball, one of San Francisco’s longest-running black-tie galas.
SAN JOSE AUXILIARY: (Pictured: 1957 ad for the opening of the Thrift Box, now located at 1362 Lincoln Ave., San Jose.) The San Jose Auxiliary has its roots in 1942, when members worked as sales staff in a San Jose department store, donating their salaries to the hospital. In 1947, it launched a major undertaking—a thrift shop selling used clothing, household goods, and other treasures. The thriving Thrift Box is located in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose.
SAN MATEO-BURLINGAME AUXILIARY: (Pictured: In 1993, San Mateo-Burlingame members model waitress uniforms from 1968–1973.) The San Mateo-Burlingame Auxiliary hosted its first fundraising gala in 1947, a lavish affair in Hillsborough that was featured in LIFE magazine. Several years later, the Auxiliary opened the Garden Café, a restaurant and tea room. Members served as waitresses and models for the restaurant’s fashion shows. The café remained a thriving enterprise for 47 years. The Auxiliary now sponsors a popular annual Game Day.
POCKET OWL, a little comfort item handmade by the Hearts and Hands Affiliate.
A Century of Service: Celebrating Our Auxiliaries
Monday, June 3, 2019
For 100 years, the Auxiliaries have devoted their energy, talent, and passion to ensure that our community’s children receive the medical care they need. An integral part of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford’s mission and history, Auxiliary members have raised millions of dollars and devoted countless hours of service to support the care of children.
The first Auxiliary, now known as the Charter Auxiliary, was created in 1919 to support the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children, where children could recuperate in the sunshine on the site of the Stanford family home in Palo Alto. Over the decades as the “Con Home” and then the children’s hospital expanded, so did the Auxiliaries.
Today nearly 1,000 members spanning seven Auxiliaries from San Francisco to San Jose support the hospital through a range of activities, including a regal annual gala, a thriving thrift shop, a restaurant and retail complex, fashion shows and teas, rummage sales, and the hospital Gift Shop. Many more volunteers provide direct service to patients and families through a variety of Affiliates.
“In my role as chief of staff, I never had to turn away a child because of a family’s inability to pay, and that is because of the Auxiliaries,” says Harvey Cohen, MD, PhD, the Deborah E. Addicott – John A. Kriewall and Elizabeth A. Haehl Family Professor in Pediatrics, who served as chief of staff at Packard Children’s from 1993 to 2006. “They have been steadfastly loyal, giving not just their money and their time, but their heart and their true support for children’s health.”
Last year alone, the Auxiliaries raised nearly $3.5 million to support patient care and vital family and community resources. In addition, the Auxiliaries Endowment, made up of generous gifts from individual members, has grown to $22 million and provides invaluable funding to launch and sustain resources such as the Teen Health Van and the Family Guidance and Bereavement Program.
In April, Auxiliary members gathered at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club to celebrate all they have accomplished and look ahead to the future. Here’s to another 100 years! Thank you, Auxiliaries, for your decades of devotion and generosity!
To join the Auxiliaries or learn more, visit supportLPCH.org/Auxiliaries.
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Packard Children’s News.
