If you fly with any sort of consistency, even if it’s just a small handful of times a year, you may have had an interest in entry into airport lounges.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve gotten into your lounge(s) of choice because you’re flying first class, have got THE credit card(s) that include entry, or are simply paying for entry for the day. Lounges can give tired travelers an oasis from the rest of the airport, with more comfortable seating, nicer bathrooms, less background noise, free snacks and beverages, etc. Some airport lounges even offer showers, sleep rooms, spas, barbershops and workout equipment.
Besides the typical lounges associated with airlines (Delta Sky Club, Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris, Turkish Airlines Lounge, etc.) or credit cards (Priority Pass, Amex Centurion Lounges, etc.), there are some lounges that are so exclusive that you can’t go them unless you’re in, for lack of a better word, “the club.”
Case in point, there are some airport lounges so elite that you can’t get into them unless you’re invited. Another good example is USO airport lounges, which are limited to active duty service members on their journeys.
A new lounge is opening at Memphis International Airport on March 24th, and it’s another one where you have to be a member of “the club” to use it. However, it’s a club that, it’s been said time and time again, no one wants to be in. It’s specifically a place where patients of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and their families can rest until boarding their flights.
Established by entertainer Danny Thomas in 1962, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital was founded on the premise that “no child should die in the dawn of life.” The mission of St. Jude is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago.
Pc: St.Jude
St. Jude is based in Memphis, which means their patients who fly to/from the hospital spend a lot of time at Memphis International Airport (MEM). Waiting around a crowded airport is a crappy scenario for those of us who aren’t in the midst of heavy-duty medical treatment. Can you imagine what it’s like for a kid getting treatment for cancer, blood disorders, HIV/AIDS, genetic disorders, etc.?
To help those kids and their families, the airport has donated space that was turned into the St. Jude patient lounge. Representatives from St.Jude’s and MEM took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this week, and the lounge is slated to open to guests on March 24th.
PC: St. Jude / Twitter
Located in Concourse B, the lounge includes seating areas with charging stations, a restroom, a game area with toys, a TV, a kitchenette with complimentary snacks and drinks, and a flight monitor.
St. Jude lounge inside the Memphis airport is the first of its kind in the world.
PC: St. Jude / Twitter
Situated between Starbucks and the live music stage, St. Jude personnel from the Housing and Patient Services department will oversee operations, including obtaining and training lounge staff, who will all be considered St. Jude employees.
“Now we will have this space where they can come. This new space where they can come and rest. They can have quiet time away from the hustle and bustle of the concourse,” said James Downing, MD, President and CEO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Said Jason Winkle, a patient’s father, “Having a sick child, an immunocompromised child, it is very difficult to travel, as you can imagine… so we are so excited about the new lounge that is opening. This is going to be an amazing place that helps take some of that burden off of our families.”
More info about the St.Jude patient lounge can be found on St.Jude’s website.
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