About the 2221 Society
Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation’s 2221 Society was formed in 2018 by like-minded leaders who are dedicated to transforming children’s health and supporting the Foundation’s mission. The 2221 Society name honors the first major transformation of Children’s Hospital Colorado, when a group of nurses providing care in tents at City Park moved the operation into a house at 2221 Downing Street in 1909.
The 2221 Society contributes philanthropic funding to Children’s Colorado to support important initiatives like cutting-edge research, treatment, therapy, education and advocacy. In partnership with Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation, the 2221 Society works to identify and fund projects that need significant philanthropic support and will advance pediatric medicine and care.
The 2221 Society operates under a d/b/a within Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation, a 501(c)(3), but has autonomy to fund the projects of its choice. Donations to the 2221 Society will support the Foundation and are tax-deductible. To date, the 2221 Society has raised more than $3.5 million for Children’s Colorado.
Commitment levels of 2221 Society
In addition to setting goals, attending meetings, serving as a Children’s Colorado ambassador, recruiting new members and executing events, 2221 Society members are asked to make a personal financial commitment on an annual basis to positively impact Children’s Colorado’s mission. Membership is available at the following levels:
- Founder’s level – members give or fundraise $25,000 annually (3-year commitment)
- President’s level – members give or fundraise $10,000 annually (3-year commitment)
- Friends of 2221 – members give or fundraise $2,221+ annually
In order to make an impactful difference at Children’s Colorado, the 2221 Society sets ambitious goals every year so that the group can truly move the needle and make transformational change for the hospital and its system of care. Members’ passion for Children’s Colorado shines through their financial commitments and their contagious, shared belief that a child’s life can and should be filled with limitless possibilities.
2025 Focus: Curing a Previously Untreatable Brain Tumor
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, is a rare, highly aggressive brain tumor that occurs in children, typically between the ages of 5 and 9. Because it grows in the brainstem, which controls the body’s most vital functions, DIPG cannot be operated on. Radiation gives children additional months with their families, but there is no cure. Each year, 300 kids in the U.S. receive this heartbreaking, fatal diagnosis. Most children are given a life expectancy of no more than a year. The terminal nature of DIPG is devastating. Over the past four decades, survival rates for many other cancers have risen dramatically. The cure rate for leukemia, for example, has increased from 11% to 91%. DIPG has remained one of the only pediatric cancers in the world for which zero progress has been made. Until now.
In the past, scientists and pharmaceutical companies have tried various approaches to treating DIPG, usually focused on interrupting the tumor’s growth with small-molecule inhibitors. Unfortunately, these attempts, including more than 200 clinical trials, have not succeeded. The tumor is complex; its biology was not sufficiently understood. But now, after years of studying DIPG—how the tumor works and what the mutation does at its most basic cellular level—Rajeev Vibhakar, MD, Sujatha Venkataraman, PhD, and their team of brain tumor researchers have developed an antibody that targets DIPG in a highly effective way.
“The current cure rate for DIPG is 0%. We are unable to save any children who get this tumor. This is the one group of patients for which, when I see them in clinic, I start end of life discussions as I start my diagnostic discussions, because I really have nothing to offer for these kids.”
Rajeev Vibhakar, MD
Pediatric Hematology /Oncology
Dr. Nicholas Foreman Endowed Chair for Neuro-Oncology Research
How we’ll get there
Unlike past approaches, this antibody, called 10D1, can harness a child’s immune system to fight their tumor. It was created with a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the tumor’s makeup.
The results of our research have been groundbreaking. In animal trials, mice that once quickly succumbed to DIPG began living into old age. At minimum, this antibody could double a child’s life expectancy after diagnosis and decrease treatment side effects due to less radiation. At its most successful, this therapy could cure the cancer. Instead of a grave diagnosis—the worst news a parent could hear—children with this tumor would be given the opportunity for a future. Together, we could bring hope to hundreds of families each year.
And the potential “ripple impact” extends even further. This antibody is being considered for use with other rare and treatment-resistant cancers. For kids with cancer around the world, this antibody—and the treatments it will shape—could become one of this generation’s most important breakthroughs. It is imperative to start the first trial of this antibody to prove that it can be successful in children. If it is effective, the possibilities for future applications could reach across the cancer continuum.
Fundraising Goal: $750,000
This novel therapeutic is awaiting FDA approval and will change the way we treat DIPG. Once the FDA has approved the therapeutic, our oncology team can begin clinical trials, which typically cost from $3 million to $5 million. While the amount needed in totality is large, an investment of $750,000 by the 2221 Society will allow Dr. Vibhakar and his team to leverage that investment with other private investors and donors to chip away at the immediate need of $2.5 million for initial antibody clinical trials. The 2221 Society’s investment would help push forward a cure for the deadliest childhood cancer and potentially pave a path for curing other previously hard to treat and deadly cancers.
Join us
The 2221 Society’s philanthropic investment will be the catalyst to advance DIPG Research, accelerating the timeline for when this novel, therapeutic intervention will be made accessible for kids through a clinical trial. This will create a vast ripple effect in impacting countless patients’ and families’ lives.
Give Now Contact 2221 Society2221 Society’s impact on Children’s Colorado
Because kids are coming to Children’s Hospital Colorado emergency departments at an alarming pace, the North Campus Emergency Department (ED) needed to make renovations that enable the delivery of healing mental health crisis services.
Fundraising by the 2221 Society helped the North Campus ED revamp its mental health intake process, which required significant, costly renovations, modifications and construction. Now, every patient who enters the ED receives an initial mental health acuity score. Mental health patients are placed on tracks – and provided with specially designed spaces – using an approach to care that recognizes the impact of trauma. With this newly designed environment and patient flow, care providers expect to dramatically reduce patient stays in the ED. Thousands of kids and families will benefit from these upgrades.
A genetic test can be a critical tool in helping a child battling disease by enabling diagnosis, reducing treatment time, and alleviating the worry that accompanies the unknown. Genetic tests are also the foundation for future advances in precision medicine.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society has served as a catalyst for Children’s Colorado to add a second genetic sequencing platform that is devoted to urgent patient cases. In addition, now genetic panels can be conducted at a more competitive cost, so Children’s Colorado can offer genetic testing to more patients in need and provide enhanced genetic data to our researchers. These rapid advances in genetic testing propel scientific understanding of genetic conditions and create a vast ripple effect, impacting countless patients’ and families’ lives.
Outdoor healing and palliative care patios offer patients, families, and caregivers the chance to be in the open air and ease suffering, sorrow and trauma, including for end-of-life transitions, while also providing protection from varying environmental conditions.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society allowed Children’s Colorado to upgrade and renovate these two spaces, equipping them with electricity, outlets, hospital bed umbrellas, and all the support needed for medical equipment and treatments, including chemotherapy, impacting thousands of kids and their families during some of the most challenging times of their lives.
The Simulation Lab Program provides experiential learning opportunities that help medical professionals practice their craft, identify problems, and prepare for a variety of medical circumstances in conditions that mimic a hospital environment.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society enabled Children’s Colorado to offer these vital training and education services to more providers and will create a dedicated Simulation Training Center, providing a dedicated space for team members to practice basic and procedure-based medical skills.
In addition, the 2221 Society hosted a golf tournament, 2221 Society x Sanctuary, to raise funds for Children’s Colorado’s Asthma Program, helping kids with one of the most common chronic illnesses of childhood.
Partners for Children’s Mental Health is a statewide entity that brings together health care, policy and thought leaders to improve access to the highest-quality mental health services for kids.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society supported the state-wide implementation of an innovative software technology that helps equip rural health care providers with the tools, skills and support required to respond to mental health needs in their communities.
Children’s One enables Children’s Colorado’s flight team to transport patients from around the U.S. and even from around the world. When a family is in critical need of care, Children’s One is there to make the transport as seamless as possible, ensuring the safety of critically ill or injured children as they receive world-class care.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society fully outfitted a vehicle, while also ensuring the medical equipment and innovative technologies stay up to date.
Children’s Colorado’s Extended Reality Program has emerged as a national leader in using innovative technologies as adjunctive therapies to enrich the patient experience and the care of children.
Fundraising from the 2221 Society has allowed more patients to benefit from the extended reality state-of-the-art technology which greatly enhances their experiences at Children’s Colorado and their recoveries.
