Burgatory and ScareHouse Host Milkshake Party to Announce Scarehouse Shake Promotion Benefiting ‘Make Room for Kids’ Project at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

WHAT: Burgatory and ScareHouse are hosting a milkshake party at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for patients, families, and staff to kick off the fifth year of the Scarehouse Shake promotion benefiting the Mario Lemieux Foundation’s Make Room for Kids initiative.

This year, Make Room for Kids will outfit the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Children’s with gaming and other electronics equipment in the eighth year of the program. Funds from the shake will support the purchase and install of XBOX consoles, extra controllers, games and movies, tablets, and more. Each room on the unit will be outfitted so that patients have access to gaming and other multimedia resources during their hospital stays.

The party will provide 500 mini shakes to patients, families, and staff to kick off this promotion. In the past 5 years, 15,000 shakes have been made to support the Make Room for Kids program. Shakes can be purchased at any full service Burgatory location throughout October.

Make Room for Kids was started by Ginny Montanez, formerly of Pittsburgh Magazine and the Pittsburgh blog, That’s Church, who encouraged her readers to donate. To date, the project has raised over $150,000 from blog readers, local Microsoft employees, Genre’s Kids with Cancer Fund, and other generous donations, and donated over 250 XBOX console units.

Children’s Hospital’s Adolescent Medicine, Cardiology, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), Epilepsy, Hematology/Oncology, Infusion Center, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pediatric Dialysis, Gastrointestinal and Pulmonary, Transplant, and Trauma units, as well as the Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center, have been outfitted with equipment and games by Make Room for Kids in previous years.

Microsoft’s Pittsburgh office has been one of the driving forces in Make Room for Kids since inception. Their goal has been improving the quality of stay and in some cases care, through technology. Pittsburgh employees and employees from across the country have joined in on the fundraising efforts and contribute roughly half of the money raised for Make Room for Kids. In addition, Microsoft employees install the devices throughout patient units and playrooms in Children’s Hospital. This project is part of the company’s record-breaking $125 million raised last year supporting nonprofits and schools across the globe.

WHEN: 1:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30

WHERE: Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, 4401 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Note to Media: Media interested in attending should park in the hospital’s main driveway and meet in the lobby to be escorted to the event.