KATC’s Tracy Wirtz talks about St. Jude

By PAUL KEDINGER
Managing Editor

KATC=TV News Anchor Tracy Wirtz described St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital  as “faith in motion,” Thursday morning as she addressed members of the Rayne Rotary Club on Thursday, May 29.
Wirtz who coordinates the Lafayette television station’s sponsorship of the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway campaign, joined KATC-TV3’s news department in 2005. She also works part-time on 97.3 The Dog radio station.
Wirtz recounted as a young girl of 8, who harbored a deep fear of needles, nevertheless took part in a fundraiser for the Memphis hospital to aid the young cancer patients.
Of her close association with the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway, Wirtz said, “It’s a fulfilling project.”
The St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway was created in 1991 by Dr. Donald Mack, a pediatric physician from Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the first doctor to send an out-of-state patient to St. Jude.
The first St. Jude Dream Home was constructed in Shreveport Today, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway is one of the largest single-event fundraisers for St. Jude nationwide and has raised more than $260 million.
This year, the program will include more than 30 St. Jude Dream Home Giveaways
She continued, “I have met the most inspirational people, the families and have looked into the faces of some of the strongest people.”
The impact of St. Jude’s Research Hospital “is local,” noted Wirtz, who referred to the Acadiana children she has encountered as “my patients.”
Describing the care offered children, Wirtz emphasized the hospital never sends a bill to the patient or his or her family. She noted it costs
$1.9 million per day to operate the hospital founded by entertainer Danny Thomas.
Touching on her career, Wirtz said, “I take my job very seriously. I want people to feel like a community.”
“It hurts me when someone hurting is featured on the news broadcast,” she said.