Carnival Partners with South Carolina Children’s Hospital

Carnival Cruise Lines and the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital announce a partnership for 2011. The year-long partnership will include several in-kind and monetary donations and fundraisers.

Carnival’s involvement will include creating Four Fun Centers, which are mobile entertainment units that include a Nintendo Wii console, flat-panel television and DVD player. Each Fun Center can be rolled up to the side of patients’ beds or throughout the hospital. Two laptops will also be donated, both items helping to improve the quality of the child’s life in the hospital setting.

Carnival also will help launch quarterly shows for the children in the MUSC Children’s Hospital Atrium, by a Carnival cruise director, Fun Ship Freddy and other talent. Carnival will deliver a total of 1,000 towel animals throughout the year to the children. The company also will make a donation to the Children’s Hospital through fundraising efforts at the Cooper River Bridge Run. A spring fundraising effort is currently in the planning stages.

In May, Carnival officially launched the first year-round cruise service from Charleston on the Carnival Fantasy to the Bahamas and Key West. In 2011, Carnival will also offer a series of Bermuda cruises for the first time from Charleston.

The partnership will begin this month with the first of the quarterly entertainment shows on Dec. 17. The goal is to provide $50,000 through a combination of monetary and in-kind donations and fundraising efforts. The Fun Centers are expected in the first quarter of 2011.