Wednesday: #TraumaCenterNow Pickets Ralph Lauren in Chicago

#TraumaCenterNow Activists Picket Ralph Lauren Store
CHICAGO - Wednesday 10/8

Photos: See @SHEUChicago on twitter
Photo of protest: pic.twitter.com/XlR25K1Yx8
Photo of flyer: pic.twitter.com/BCvxmF9MgE


Members of the Trauma Care Coalition will picket a luxury fundraiser event for the University of Chicago Medical Center, held at Ralph Lauren’s flagship Chicago store, on the magnificent mile, asking the luxury clothing brand to cut ties with the hospital until it opens an adult trauma center. Participating members of the coalition include South Side youth organizers, mothers, UChicago students, faith leaders, and members of campus unions.

“We’re bringing our campaign to the magnificent mile to let Ralph Lauren know that the Univ of Chicago is a bad choice for their charity efforts,” noted Woodlawn youth organizer Veronica Morris-Moore. “Why should an institution that has repeatedly shown so much disregard for black lives on the South Side get to benefit from a luxury mag mile fundraiser?” The event at Ralph Lauren is a “charitable shopping” event where 15 per cent of sales made will be donated to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Earlier, activists sent a letter to Ralph Lauren outlining concerns with the University of Chicago’s refusal to provide trauma care, and asking them to cancel the charity shopping event. In that letter, they noted that, “Until it does a better job of responding to its surrounding communities, the University of Chicago Medical Center is not a worthy recipient of philanthropic donations and not a worthy partner for Ralph Lauren’s charitable efforts.”

Wednesday’s event is being sponsored by the “Cancer Research Women’s Board,” and while the link to trauma care may appear hidden, activists explain that such fundraisers benefit the hospital as a whole. “You can’t just separate the various functions that the hospital performs,” explained UofC student and organizer Emilio Comay del Junco, “Cancer research is already extremely well funded at the UCMC, to their credit, and the hospital receives extensive government and private funding for it. We question the priorities of devoting even more resources to an already extremely well funded set of programs, when there is such a clear need to provide trauma care on the South Side. People are literally dying next door and they are doing nothing about it.”

There is currently no level-one trauma center for adults on the South Side of Chicago. Activists and public health leaders have been calling on the University of Chicago, by far the best-resourced institution in the area, to help fill that gap.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-20/news/chi-university-of-chicago-trauma-center-20140520_1_veronica-morris-moore-trauma-center-south-side

The campaign for a level-one adult trauma center at the University of Chicago was sparked by the shooting death of Woodlawn youth leader Damian Turner in 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/03cnchospitals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Turner was taken more than 10 miles away, to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and died en route. Recent research by Dr. Marie Crandall of Northwestern, has shown clear links between increased travel time and mortality.
http://www.wbez.org/news/report-links-chicagoans-distance-trauma-centers-higher-mortality-rates-106732

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Recent stories on the trauma center campaign:

“Chicago needs help, not Obama Library,” LZ Granderson, CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/21/opinion/granderson-chicago-obama-library/

“Doctors add voices to demand for UofC trauma center,” Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-doctors-add-voices-to-demand-for-u-of-c-trauma-center-20140522-story.html

“Activists protest university’s bid for Obama Library,” USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/11/obama-presidential-library-university-of-chicago-trauma-center/8898629/

“University of Chicago Alumni: No Donations Until Trauma Center Opened,” Progress Illinois
http://www.progressillinois.com/posts/content/2014/06/09/university-chicago-alumni-no-donations-until-trauma-center-gets-opened

“Why This Hospital Turned a 18-Year Old Away After He Was Shot,” The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/20/university-of-chicago-obama-library_n_5359444.html