Senior Bowl Hospital Visit Goes Viral

Reese's Senior Bowl South Team member Dee Ford from Auburn University holds Shephard Hall in his lap as Shephard's brother Sawyer watches them play a game on Ford's phone. A group of players from the 2014 Reese's Senior Bowl visited with patients at USA Children's & Women's Hospital on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014.

When dozens of college football players from this year’s Reese’s Senior Bowl stopped by USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital, the hospital’s young patients weren’t the only ones smiling. The visit went viral on social media, with tens of thousands of people across the country enjoying photos from the event.

After the photos were posted on the Facebook page for USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital (www.facebook.com/usacwhospital), they were shared by the pages of some of the nation’s largest and most popular football programs. Thanks to the attention generated by the visit, the hospital’s page reached more than 150,000 people from Friday, Jan. 24, through Thursday, Jan. 30. The attention also gained dozens of new followers for the page, bringing its total number of “likes” to more than 5,000.

“The annual visit by Senior Bowl players is a long-standing tradition at the hospital, and it brings a lot of joy to our patients and their families,” said Owen Bailey, hospital administrator for USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital. “It’s no surprise to us that such a heartwarming event proved to be so popular online. We’re grateful to all of the players who came out.”

An album with photos from the event (http://bit.ly/senior_bowl_album) was shared by 45 people who put the album on their own Facebook profile pages, and it was “liked” by more than 150 people. One particularly popular photo from the album showed three players from the University of Alabama standing around a patient. That photo alone was shared 60 times and received 52 “likes.”

When the Facebook page for the Auburn Tigers shared a photo of their players with some patients, it received more than 5,000 “likes” and was shared 300 times. A similar post by the page for Oklahoma Football received nearly 3,500 “likes” and 200 additional shares. Photos also were shared by the pages for the Arkansas Razorbacks and Nick’s Kids Fund, the official charity of Alabama Coach Nick Saban and his wife, Terry.

The photos were taken by USA Health System Photographer Bill Starling and posted by Daniela Werner, the new web marketing specialist for USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital and the USA Medical Center. Werner joined the hospitals at the end of last year and works on promoting content for each hospital’s Facebook page and their new Twitter accounts.

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our focus on social media,” said Bailey. “There are so many great stories about our patients and our staff, and Facebook and Twitter make it easy for us to share those stories with our community.”

Follow USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital at www.facebook.com/usacwhospital or @USACWHospital on Twitter.

Follow the USA Medical Center at  www.facebook.com/usamedicalcenter or @USAMedCenter on Twitter.

The Senior Bowl players visit is part of the hospital’s Mapp Child and Family Life Program, which normalizes a child’s stay at Children’s & Women’s with activities that they might otherwise participate in outside the hospital.

Children’s & Women’s and the Senior Bowl have a long history together, as the bowl organization has provided support for computers for pediatric patients receiving treatment in the USS Hope infusion therapy center, along with special golf carts that transport patients and families throughout the USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital campus.