On September 24, Chili’s Grill & Bar Restaurant offers a simple way to help fight childhood cancer. Eat out! Nationwide participating Chili’s restaurants will be donating 100 percent of profits from Monday, September 24, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. Before he was a successful entertainer, Danny Thomas prayed before a statue of St. Jude Thaddaeus, patron saint of desperate cases. He asked the saint to help him find his way in life. His prayer was answered and Thomas vowed to build a shrine to the saint someday. St. Jude Hospital is that shrine.

St. Jude, the first institution created to perform basic and clinical research into catastrophic childhood diseases (mainly cancer), remains to be the only National Cancer Institute funded cancer center devoted to children. Children from all 50 states and over 70 countries have been treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude is also known as a teaching facility, and findings from research done at the hospital are shared with doctors and scientists worldwide. Most of the approximately 260 patients treated on a daily basis are done so as outpatients. The hospital has about 60 inpatient beds.

The only pediatric hospital of its kind, families never pay for treatment beyond what is covered by insurance. St. Jude never asks families without insurance to pay.

September 24th is part of Chili’s “Create-A-Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer” campaign. September is National Childhood Cancer awareness month, and throughout this month guests who make a donation to St. Jude can get a coloring sheet to decorate and display at the restaurant. Create-A-Pepper T-Shirts and dog tags are also available for purchase and sixty percent of the proceeds will be donated to St. Jude Hospital. Special commemorative gift cards are being sold as well, with $1 for every $25 spent going to St. Jude Hospital.

In its fourth year this campaign is part of a ten year plan to fund the Chili’s Care Center. It will be a state of the art research and clinical building, set to open in November 2007 on the campus of St. Jude. Chili’s Care Center will include St. Jude’s Department of Radiological Studies and the national Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, as well as more inpatient beds, research labs and activity areas.

If you plan to eat lunch or dinner out this Monday, September 24, please consider supporting Chili's effort to help seriously ill children fight to survive.

Visit Create-A-Pepper for more information about this campaign.

Learn more about St. Jude Thaddaeus, patron saint of desperate cases.