{"id":26702,"date":"2025-09-26T11:50:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/?post_type=blog&p=26702"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:32:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:32:40","slug":"building-community-with-oklahoma-childrens-hospital","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/blog\/building-community-with-oklahoma-childrens-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Community with Oklahoma Children\u2019s Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

When JE Dunn first partnered with Oklahoma Children\u2019s Hospital OU Health on renovations to the pediatric intensive care unit in 2018, Ali Sanderson was on the job.<\/p>\n

For two years, the then project manager and her team witnessed the level of care hospital staff provided to patients and their families. What she saw hit close to home and made an impression on JE Dunn\u2019s commitment to community involvement in Oklahoma to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I\u2019d just come off maternity leave with my first child,\u201d Ali, the now project director, said. \u201cThroughout construction, I was very aware that if something were to happen to my child, the building we were working on is where we would go to receive care. The staff we interacted with daily were the people I would trust to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

JE Dunn\u2019s Oklahoma City Office opened in 2008 with a commitment to building inspiring places that would help the state grow and flourish. Since then, the State of Oklahoma has experienced exponential levels of\u00a0population<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and financial growth. In fact, U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Oklahoma City as the best big city to live in nationwide.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOklahoma City is growing,\u201d said Forrest Wilson, leader of JE Dunn\u2019s Oklahoma offices. \u201cIn the years to come, it will be imperative that our city\u2019s infrastructure keeps pace with the growth so that we can maintain our affordability, quality of life, and job market strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

To fill this need, institutions across the state are turning to community builders that can leverage technology and expertise while preserving what made Oklahoma worth growing in the first place.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since 2018, JE Dunn has completed 75 projects for 32 different healthcare facilities across the state \u2013 eight of those projects for Oklahoma Children\u2019s Hospital. From systems upgrades to major relocations, renovations, and additions, the local team is invested in meeting the state\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of our work is done to improve the community,\u201d Ali adds. \u201cA lot of the healthcare facilities we\u2019re going into are aging or older, and we\u2019re increasing capacity and improving patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at JE Dunn, community building does not start, or end, with the work done on any given project site. Instead, it extends into every facet of the places JE Dunn teammates live and build in as they strive to be authentic community members. JE Dunn\u2019s corporate philanthropy impacts the many markets around the nation where the company builds, investing 10% of net income to nonprofits and empowering employees to make an impact through volunteerism and an employee match program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are part of a very, very tight knit and giving community,\u201d Jentri Whitford, Manager of the Oklahoma Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s Child Life Zone & Special Events emphasizes. \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to have a lot of the donors that we have, but there\u2019s something very different about partners like JE Dunn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jentri and her coworker Belinda Anderson, Manager of Volunteer Services at Oklahoma Children\u2019s Hospital, have become well acquainted with Ali and the entire JE Dunn team over the past six years. The pair work with JE Dunn on volunteer activities that bring fun and lighthearted moments into young patients\u2019 and their families\u2019 days while receiving care \u2013 like haunted hallways, holiday parties, arts and crafts nights, silly costumes, and other magical moments.<\/p>\n

While recalling some of their earliest interactions with JE Dunn, Jentri and Belinda describe team members that are always looking for a need to fill, whether that be helping move tables, purchasing much needed supplies, dressing up to make kids smile, building decorations, or sticking around to clean up after a long event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just a pure example of a servant\u2019s heart,\u201d Belinda said. \u201cThey\u2019re very great at their careers, but there is something else that motivates them in life. It could be the littlest of things, but they jump in without thinking twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ali and the rest of the JE Dunn Oklahoma team, volunteering is simply a piece of being a community builder who is trusted to enrich the lives of people where JE Dunn lives, works, and builds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they know and trust us to do the right thing on or off the project site,\u201d Ali adds, \u201cthat\u2019s what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At JE Dunn, community building does not start, or end, with the work done on any given project site. Instead, it extends into every facet of the places JE Dunn teammates live and build in as they strive to be authentic community members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45609,"template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":""},"campaigns":[],"type-of-content_tax":[],"class_list":["post-26702","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","locations_tax-oklahoma-city","expertise_tax-healthcare"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/26702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/26702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45605,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/26702\/revisions\/45605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"campaigns","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaigns?post=26702"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-content_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-content_tax?post=26702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}