Club aims to endow pediatric chaplaincy

IOWA CITY - For about 20 years, the Old Capitol Kiwanis Club of Iowa City has been trying to endow additional chaplaincies at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital.

'I'll be honest with you, the funding for the pediatric chaplain is woefully inadequate,” said Barry Trittle, the club's president. 'We believe the size of the new hospital will probably require three to four more pediatric chaplains.”

Martha Lang, who is the UI Children's Hospital's sole pediatric chaplain, said a large amount of her day is spent making rounds through the pediatric intensive care units, checking in, listening and meeting with patients, families and caretakers.

'Especially in the ICUs, our staff, nurses, physicians, often go through challenging situations and sometimes challenges in their own families,” Lang said. 'They sometimes may have children the same age as the child they are taking care of. That is something that is very difficult, and weighs heavily on our staff.”

Lang received her Masters of Divinity degree from the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque. Before coming to the UI Children's Hospital, Lang, a Muscatine native, was ordained as an Episcopal deacon. She decided to become a health care chaplain after caring for a friend in her parish.

'There are a lot of hard days, but the hardness of my day is nothing compared to the hardness of the families - it just doesn't compare,” she said. 'There is an ongoing prayer in my head constantly throughout the day for the patients, families and staff - but also for me. That God gives me words to provide comfort to them.”

The Old Capitol Kiwanis Club is trying to raise $1.5 million for the pediatric chaplaincy program at the University of Iowa, but only has raised about $425,000, according to Phil Holland, who organizes the Kiwanis' annual Good Friday Prayer Breakfast fundraiser.

'We haven't found anybody that wants to give us a lot of money,” Holland said.

The Iowa City group has had other area Kiwanis chip in, and hope more will follow in the future.

'Anything we can do to help to expand the interfaith care for the families during their time of crisis,” Trittle said.