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Sunday, April 12, the Slayton Kiwanis will host their annual Children’s Miracle Network fundraiser, serving soup and dessert. According to Bethany Burden- Olson, Lead Development Officer at the Sanford Health Foundation, the Kiwanis group has been fundraising for CMN since 1994 and has raised over $45,000 in that time.
Burden-Olson spoke to the Kiwanis earlier this year, updating the group on what Children’s Miracle Network does and how the funds they raise are spent.
“This is Alaina from Dundee,” she said, showing a Power Point that featured a picture of a little girl with red hair and a contagious smile. “She battled leukemia, and Child Life helped her and her family.”
Child Life, a project through Sanford Children’s and CMN, helped Alaina and her family by utilizing prize charts to encourage eating habits, through port access and through providing materials and language that her four siblings would understand, so Alaina’s parents could explain what was happening.
Two years after she was diagnosed, Alaina rang the bell, symbolizing the end of treatment.
“Kids don’t understand what cancer is,” Burden-Olson explained. “Child Life developmental experts help the kids cope, help them understand why they are getting poked.”
The Children’s Miracle Network also makes camps available to children at no cost. For those who have battled cancer or those still going through it, the kids get to be kids. They go tubing, ride horses, play and laugh, all with oncologists and nurses on site.
Each year, CMN partners raise more than $2 million to support the work of health and healing at Sanford Children’s Hospital.
“Every year we see more patients,” Burden-Olson said. “This year we had 28,000 kids in the hospital or specialty clinic. Every patient that walks through the doors of the castle are impacted by CMN dollars.”
The money also funds equipment – oscillators, ultrasound machines, and a new x-ray machine. More than $250,000 is spent on direct child and family assistance, including meals, mileage, lodging and medical supplies not covered by insurance.
More than 190 children were treated at the castle in 2025. Sanford pays to operate the foundation so that 100 percent of donated dollars come back to the cause.
Anyone interested in contributing to the CMN through Slayton Kiwanis can contact a Kiwanis member. The Soup and Dessert fundraiser will be from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, April 12 at St. Ann’s Hall in Slayton.
