WHAT: Held annually around National Burn Awareness Week, Burn Survivor Sunday provides patients treated at the UPMC Mercy Gertrude P. and Donald C.W. Birmingham Trauma and Burn Center the opportunity to reunite and celebrate their survival with members of their care team, including doctors and nurses.

This year’s event will have a festive atmosphere with a carnival theme with boardwalk games, magicians, balloon artists, pet therapy dogs, Sparky the Firedog from the Peters Township Fire Department, costumed characters, and arts and crafts. 

Former Burn patients will have the opportunity to join  the local chapter of the Phoenix SOAR® program, a hospital-based, one-on-one peer support program that connects people with new burn injuries to survivors and family members who have been impacted by a burn injury.

WHY: Burn Survivor Sunday has been held annually at UPMC Mercy since 1994. An American Burn Association–verified burn center, the UPMC Mercy Burn Center was the first in Pennsylvania, and one of the first in the U.S. In addition, UPMC Mercy is a Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center. The combination of burn and trauma care services under one roof gives UPMC Mercy the unique ability to care for the most critically ill and injured patients.

Approximately 100 burn survivors, their families and the UPMC Mercy Burn Center care team.

WHERE: UPMC Mercy, Sister M. Ferdinand Clark Auditorium, 2nd Floor; 1400 Locust St., Pittsburgh, 15219.

Note to media: To cover the event, contact Stephanie Stanley at 412-855-8690 or StanleySL@upmc.edu.