C Spire Foundation, Creekmore family donates $1 million to Children’s of Mississippi

Published on Thursday, July 27, 2023

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

A $1 million gift from the C Spire Foundation and the Creekmore family helped fund Children’s of Mississippi’s historic expansion.

Representatives from the C Spire Foundation and members of the Creekmore family visited the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi to see some of the features of the expansion, including private neonatal intensive care rooms, state-of-the-art clinics, pediatric imaging machines that resemble a lighthouse, a ship and a sandcastle, and the C Spire Foundation Connector Hall, an artery of the state’s only children’s hospital that’s traveled by families, nurses and physicians.

C Spire, the telecommunications and technology company founded by Wade H. Creekmore Jr. and James H. Creekmore Sr., funds the private C Spire Foundation.

"The Creekmore family and the C Spire Foundation are very pleased to be donating the gift of $ 1 million dollars to the Children’s Hospital,” said Jim Richmond, C Spire vice president of corporate communications and marketing. “As a Mississippian, I can say it is terrific to have such a superb medical facility dedicated to a healthier Mississippi and focused on the prevention and treatment of diseases that affect so many."

C Spire is a privately owned telecommunications and technology company based in Mississippi offering wireless, residential fiber internet, and business IT solutions, such as internet, VoIP, cloud and managed services.

Wade Creekmore’s ties to UMMC go back to when, as a student at the University of Mississippi, he worked during the summer as a carpenter’s assistant when the Medical Center was under construction.

“I’m happy to still help in building the University of Mississippi Medical Center,” he said.

With more than 60 percent of the children’s hospital coming from outside the Jackson metro area, Children’s of Mississippi is truly a Mississippi hospital, said Guy Giesecke, CEO of Children’s of Mississippi.

The Sanderson Tower, includes two floors of private NICU rooms where parents can stay with their babies as they grow, 32 private pediatric ICU rooms, a dozen surgical suites, specialty clinics for follow-up care, pediatric imaging and an adjacent parking garage with a covered walkway for convenience.

Since the opening of the Sanderson Tower, surgeries have increased 15 percent, and thousands of critically ill patients have been able to have their parents beside them as they grow and heal.

“We’re so thankful to have partners like C Spire and the Creekmore family,” Giesecke said. “Through their generosity thousands of children can get the advanced health care they need close to home.”