A wild time

More than 4,000 employees and their children are still talking about the lion, gorillas and tigers they saw during Children's Family Day at the Franklin Park Zoo on Oct. 4. The fun-filled day included a musical performance by Wildest Dreams, a magic show by Peter O'Malley, lunch and ice cream. Click here for more photos.

'Tis always the season

From breakfast with Santa in the winter to cartwheel-a-thons in the summer, folks are planning fundraisers for Children's year-round. Last year, 150 people organized community fundraisers and raised $1.4 million for the hospital. This year, the hospital launched a community fundraising Web site with tools to help plan these kinds of fundraisers. As the holiday season nears, consider transforming a holiday event into a fundraiser. Contact events@chtrust.org or visit childrenshospital.org/fundraisers for more information. You can also find a fundraiser to support on the online calendar of events.

Children's recognized for safety and quality

Leapfrog Group has named 26 hospitals and seven pediatric hospitals as 2008 Top Hospitals in its 2008 survey. The survey is one of the nation's premier hospital patient safety evaluation tools and recognized Children's for our patient safety and quality efforts.

Big old bones

Last month, patients got a first look at bones that belonged to a 65 million year-old Triceratops named Cliff. Cliff's prehistoric fossil feet were sent through Children's Red Sox CT scanner and his spectacularly preserved jaw, which revealed that triceratops shed their teeth daily like sharks, were X-rayed. To see the fossils, visit the Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff exhibition, which opens at the Museum of Science on Nov. 15.

ECMO reunion

The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) program celebrated its 24th year with a reunion of families who've benefited from the life-saving heart-lung machine and the team who cared for them. Click here for more photos.