October 10, 1969 

On this day, the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital Cheer Guild held its annual benefit card party at the Murat Temple. With the proceeds of the event, the Cheer Guild purchased a "special wheeled stretcher equipped for any type of patient" for use at Robert Long Hospital.

The Cheer Guild has had a long relationship with the hospitals in the Indiana University Medical Center. It started in 1924, when Mrs. Andrew J. Porter called a meeting to bring together persons willing to serve at the soon-to-open Riley Hospital for Children. A group soon organized to provide cheer to the young patients of the hospital. They named the group the Riley Hospital Cheer Guild.

The Riley Cheer Guild spread its services to Long Hospital, and then to University Hospital, which opened in 1970 to replace Long. Today the Cheer Guild organizes and supports toy distribution in the IU Health hospitals in downtown Indianapolis, as well as provides music-therapy and art-therapy programs in the hospitals.

To learn more about the long history of the Cheer Guild, please contact the IUPUI Special Collections and Archives speccoll@iupui.edu.