Media dramatize need for center. Oregon friends rally for burn center remodeling cause.

A carefully orchestrated fund-raising and media relations campaign contributed to the opening earlier this year of the new Oregon Burn Center on Legacy Health System's Emanuel Hospital campus, Portland, Ore. The new $5 million center is the only facility of its kind between Sacramento, Calif., Salt Lake City and Seattle. It replaces the original 12-bed facility built in 1973. The expanded center has 16 beds in 16 private rooms, treatment areas designed for children and a host of other state-of-the-art improvements that make the Oregon Burn Center among the nation's finest. Between Legacy's investment of $3 million and contributions from Oregonians, more than $5 million was raised for the new center. Beyond that, annual giving, which amounted to $85,000 in fiscal 2001, is holding steady in 2002.