Over the years, Mr. Billotti has played a significant role in helping to raise awareness and funds for St. Mary’s kids, and his generosity has gone a long way for some of the most seriously ill and injured children in the New York Metropolitan area. His efforts were recently recognized as he was named the honoree of St. Mary’s 2008 Tribute Dinner where he announced his plans for “Building for Children,” a mentoring and occupational therapy program for St. Mary’s kids, to help further the mission of St. Mary’s Hospital for Children-to improve the quality of life for children with special needs and their families.

The monthly volunteer program is aimed towards doing just that as it brings together teams from the construction, development, and real estate industries with St. Mary’s kids for an hour of building, drawing, developing, and other activities that promote therapeutic value for patients. Taking time out of their busy days, team members from Turner will take turns visiting and spending time with St. Mary’s kids, teaching them the ropes of the development business.

During Thursday’s kick-off visit, members of the Turner team, Ark Latt, John Braley, Brian Cox, and Aubrey Zickel explained the various skills and roles required for constructing a building; such as a foreman, an architect, an engineer, and a construction worker.

St. Mary’s kids were then split into groups, given a box of legos, pencils and paper, and with the help of Turner’s colleagues, began drawing, building, and constructing cranes, vehicles, and small buildings. St. Mary’s kids got the hang of things pretty quickly and soon enough were redesigning their homes.

The Turner crew enjoyed working with the kids of St. Mary’s, and was very impressed with the creativity and energy they showed. They are looking forward to returning to the Bayside hospital with a few more challenging projects on hand. This is just the beginning of building a future for St. Mary’s Kids and Turner International has made the first step.

St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children

St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children is one of the nation’s premier providers of healthcare for children with special needs and life-limiting conditions.  St. Mary’s provides intensive rehabilitative and specialized medical care to close to 4,000 children each day in the New York Metropolitan region and beyond through its family-centered inpatient, home care, and community programs. For more information on St. Mary’s, visit www.stmaryskids.org.