ATLANTA -- They have three campuses, dozens of buildings, hundreds of beds, a budget of many millions of dollars and yet the story of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is best told one child at time:

- Charlie Schoen, an 11-year-old born with a rare brain defect. For treatment, surgeries, and endless days of rehabilitation, the boy and his family have made hundreds of trips to Children’s in the last ten years. And yet his father says, “It’s a warm and inviting place… so we don’t really feel bad when we have to go there. It’s not like we’re thinking, ‘Oh, no, another trip to Children’s…because the environment is so welcoming.”

- Maia Brookes is a charming 11-year-old who loves to dance. After a tumor in her leg was diagnosed as bone cancer, surgeons at Children’s removed part of her leg in order to cut out the cancer. And that lead to an extraordinary prosthetic inserted into her leg, a high tech device that lengthens internally, that grows as she grows. Maia was afraid that after the surgery she would no longer be able to dance. “That made me really upset so I wanted to talk to the doctors to make sure that was not true… so now that I know that really isn’t that true, I am really happy.” And, in fact, she is dancing again.

-And eight-year-old Carley McMaster who needed surgery to remove a brain tumor. When she first came to Children’s, she didn’t talk, or move, and even look at anyone. But Carley is a tough little girl. During rehabilitation, in the words of her therapist, “You could just see the determination in her eyes. She was raring to go.” Today, Carley can feed herself, write her name, throw a ball, and walk with a walker.

Three kids, just three stories, among the hundreds of thousands treated each year at one of the premier pediatric hospitals in the nation, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.