MILL BASIN — Maimonides held its ninth annual Community for Kids Benefit, drawing more than 450 spectators, the most since its inception in 2016, on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the El Caribe Country Club. The benefit presented a special opportunity to support and celebrate the comprehensive, 24/7 care that the hospital offers for Brooklyn’s 600,000 children. 

Maimonides is home to Brooklyn’s only center for pediatric trauma care and only comprehensive children’s hospital. This year, the event was especially significant, as Maimonides prepares to open its state-of-the-art expanded pediatric emergency department in 2025, which will serve as the largest pediatric emergency department in all of Brooklyn. It is expected to be five times the size of its existing children’s emergency department. 

Frank Naccarato, co-chair of Community for Kids and board member and trustee of Maimonides Medical Center, told the Brooklyn Eagle that since the trauma center was built in 2016, more than 4,000 children’s lives have been saved.