Celebrate Panda Cares Day with Panda Express on August 8 and help Oklahoma Kids!

Children’s Hospital Foundation is excited to celebrate Panda Cares Day on August 8. Why? Because Panda Express is hosting a one-day virtual fundraiser for area kids treated at Children’s Hospital.  When a guest places an order on the Panda Express mobile app or website using the promo code “PandaCaresDay,” Panda will donate 28 percent of online sales to support pediatric research, education and clinical care in Oklahoma.

Donations collected year round at local Panda Express locations have helped kids like Mattie. Only fifty percent of babies born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) survive. Mattie’s was larger than anticipated when she was born. Every abdominal organ had developed in her chest, pushing her heart to the right and keeping her left lung from developing. She had immediate surgery, and what followed was a roller coaster ride, with complications that necessitated her being placed on an ECMO machine to regulate her heart and lungs. With a poor prognosis, her family prepared to say goodbye, until a neonatologist tried a “high-frequency jet ventilator” and by that afternoon, Mattie was bouncing back. She was eventually sent home, although complications continued. She was diagnosed with progressive scoliosis and a diaphragmatic hernia at age three and was recently diagnosed with bronchiectasis, leaving her lungs functioning at only 50 percent of normal capacity.
Mattie’s unique combination of difficult diagnoses means she is limited in what she can do but her positive attitude has no limits at all. She teaches everyone around her that life is meant to be lived to the fullest. She is always ready to with a joke to tell or dance to perform. “You will not keep me from loving gymnastics and ballet,” Mattie says about her condition. “You won’t keep me down because I’m a miracle.”

Additionally, Children’s Hospital Foundation is excited to recognize Panda for the $208,000 in donations made in 2019 that will continue to help in our community and transform how we meet the most urgent needs, save more lives and protect our collective future.

So mark your calendars for Saturday, August 8. Panda Cares Day means that every online order of your favorite Panda Express meal helps change kids’ health and change the future – for all of us.