Media Contact: Michael Schwartzberg, GBMC Media Relations Manager

(O): 443-849-2126/Cell: 410-258-3465eMarch 2:]

GBMC Adds Cheer and Color to
Pediatric Emergency Department

With Artwork From Lutherville Laboratory
Elementary School Students

BALTIMORE, Md. –  August 27, 2007 – As students head back to school, artwork from more than 40 youngsters attending Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School will be hanging at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, brightening the corridors that dozens of children and their parents travel through every day.

“Light, colors, textures, even smells all have an impact on human physiology. The art will allow children to enter not a scary, sterile, colorless world full of intimidating machines and sounds, but a world full of images created by children themselves,” said Melissa Sparrow, M.D., GBMC’s     clinical director, pediatric inpatient and emergency services. “This will bring familiarity and comfort to children who might be having an otherwise scary experience.”

The “GBMC Pediatric Art Project” will be unveiled during a special reception on Monday, September 10, 5:30-7 p.m. in GBMC’s Yaggy Atrium. (Media are invited to attend. Lutherville Laboratory students; Judy Roppelt, the school’s art director; Dr. Sparrow and other pediatric clinicians will be available for interviews).

The artwork, using a variety of mediums including tempera paint, oil pastel, paper collage, marker, acrylic paint, paper sculpture and chalk, were all professionally matted and framed and will become a permanent collection for GBMC’s Department of Pediatrics.  The projects will be displayed in the corridor leading to the     Pediatric Emergency Department (PEDS ED), hung in pediatric in-patient rooms, and in the pediatric playroom.  Colorful wall sculptures by Russell J. Marks, Jr., a local contributing artist who is a native of Maryland and former student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, will also be on display.

Maggie Burke, a 7-year-old from Lutherville and a second-grader at Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School who has been a patient at GBMC’s PEDS ED, will have a piece of abstract art titled “Lines” on display.  “It makes me feel special,” she said.  “We are very happy to have Maggie's artwork displayed at GBMC along with other childrens' artwork because unfortunately, yet inevitably, our family will be visiting the ER probably for years to come and the experience will not feel so scary to our kids,” said Maggie’s mother Lisa.  “The artwork will be something cheery as well as comforting. We always felt we were in good hands when we have been to the ER, this addition just proves GBMC really cares about their patients.”

Karyn Keidel, whose nine-year-old son Stephen will have “Butterflies” on display, appreciates GBMC’s interest in art, especially as budget cuts in the county school system impact creative arts.  “The artwork will hopefully bring a smile to the faces of the pediatric patients and their parents,” said the Lutherville resident.

“This is a great opportunity for the students to showcase their many talents,” said Judy Roppelt, art teacher at Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School, a magnet school specializing in science, mathematics and communications.  “They are creatively independent and never at a loss for ideas. I’m so proud that our students have this opportunity to give something so precious back to the community.”

Roppelt, who delivered a premature daughter nearly 16 years ago at GBMC, added, “I’m so happy to be able to give something back to GBMC that will be enjoyed by all who visit in the future.”

The Pediatric Art Project was spearheaded by Dr. Sparrow, a Lutherville resident whose two children attended Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School, and Valerie Tighe, RN, clinical nurse manager of the PEDS ED, after visiting Howard County Hospital and seeing their pediatric emergency department decorated with art from Howard County public school students.

GBMC’s (PEDS ED) provides emergency medical care to more than 13,000 children annually. The PEDS ED operates with a “Continuum of Care” model, combining urgent, emergency, observation and inpatient care services, one of several such models in Maryland.  Nurses and physicians specializing in pediatric care follow children along their path of care, and a board-certified pediatrician is on-site around the clock.  “This environment creates a continuity of care that provides for good medicine.

GBMC includes Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), Central Maryland’s leading community hospital; Hospice of Baltimore, which provides comfort and care to patients with life-limiting illnesses; and the GBMC Foundation, which supports the GBMC mission by managing fundraising efforts.  The 292-bed Medical Center, located on a beautiful suburban campus, serves nearly 22,000 inpatients annually and provides approximately 60,000 emergency room visits. For more information, go to www.gbmc.org

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