Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year - John Bull Jr. - National Philanthropy Day

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Opening screen: Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser National Philanthropy Day 2022

John Bull Jr.

Shriners Hospitals opened with their first hospital treating polio patients and my father as a child had polio and was treated in our St. Louis hospital. I believe that's where he had the inspiration and initiative to become a Shriner first.

As I grew up as a child in a Shrine family, the Shrine was my second family. One of the things my dad always said was, if you're going to complain about something be ready to jump in and fix the problem.

Well, I jumped in with both feet and I've been a Shriner since I was 21, which is the earliest I could join at the time. The first hospital I was ever in, I had a little child come up to me and just hug me and that's all took. You know you break down in tears for that kind of love and that kind of joy. From that point on any time that's needed anytime it's wanted you're there to do it. I was elected to the Divan and served as Potentate here in 2013, which ironically was 40 years to the year from when my dad served. The mission of purpose is to serve as many children as we can through our doors of the hospital. Treating burns, treating cleft lip and palate. We're starting a new joint program with Dayton Children's, which is a lot of plastic surgeries. To make anything that you touch work you have to have a great staff. You have to have great people to work with and I try to surround myself with those people. And the people that we work with the Shriners are the best. They're the ones that deserve this not me. They're the ones that did all the work and I thank them for this. This award is about them, it's not about me.