St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee)

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Main entrance
Shown in Tennessee
Geography
Location	262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Coordinates	35°09′12″N 90°02′32″W / 35.153469°N 90.042207°W / 35.153469; -90.042207Coordinates: 35°09′12″N 90°02′32″W / 35.153469°N 90.042207°W / 35.153469; -90.042207
Organization
Care system	Private & Charity
Hospital type	Specialized
Services
Standards	JCAHO accreditation
Emergency department	No
History
Founded	1962
Links
Website	www.stjude.org

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. The hospital costs about $2 million a day to run, and there is no cost to be treated. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a nonprofit medical corporation designated as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service.

St. Jude was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas in 1962, with help from Lemuel Diggs and close friend, Miami, Florida, automobile dealer Anthony Abraham, on the premise that "no child should die in the dawn of life". This idea resulted from a promise that Thomas, a Maronite Catholic, had made to a saint years before the hospital was founded. Thomas was a comedian who was struggling to get a break in his career and living paycheck to paycheck. When his first child was about to be born, he attended Mass in Detroit and put his last $7.00 in the offering bin. He prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus for a means to provide for his family, and about a week later, he obtained a gig that paid 10 times what he had put in the offering bin. After that time, Thomas believed in the power of prayer. He promised St. Jude Thaddeus that if he made him successful, he would one day build him a shrine. Years later, Thomas became an extremely successful comedian and built St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus to honor his promise.

In 1957, Thomas founded the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), which helped him realize his dream. ALSAC is also the fundraising organization of St. Jude. Since St. Jude opened its doors in 1962, ALSAC has had the responsibility of raising the necessary funds to keep the hospital open. Memphis was chosen at the suggestion of Roman Catholic Cardinal Samuel Stritch, a Tennessee native who had been a spiritual advisor to Thomas since he presided at Thomas's confirmation in Thomas's boyhood home of Toledo, Ohio.