Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis: News

Oakland, CA - Riders Matt Crane, Roman Kilun and John Murphy of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis spent part of Valentine's Day at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland.

The riders spent two hours with the kids, doing a lot of cutting and pasting while helping to make Valentines, and visiting the Pediatric Sports Medicine clinic in the hospital, where they talked to kids and staff about what it's like to be a professional cyclist.

"It felt like a really worthwhile trip," said Kilun, who lives on the Berkeley-Oakland border, just a few minutes from the hospital. "The kids liked it and so did we.

"I think it was a nice little change for the kids to have people other than their families visit them," he added. "It's a really stressful situation for parents, and it helps the kids to have people like us come in, who aren't stressed out and can just spend time with them."

Roman enjoyed the visit so much, he's now looking into volunteering at the hospital and research center.

About Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland, CA

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California's only freestanding and independent children's hospital. Children's is the leader in many pediatric specialties including neonatology, cardiology, neurosurgery and intensive care. The hospital is a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center and has the largest pediatric critical care facility in the region. Children's Hospital has 190 licensed beds, 201 hospital-based physicians in 31 specialties, more than 2,611 employees and an operating budget of $312 million. Children's research arm, Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), has approximately 300 staff members and an annual budget of more than $49 million. The National Institutes of Health is CHORI's primary funding source. The institute is a leader in translational blood diseases, developing new vaccines for infectious diseases and discovering new treatment protocols for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancers, sickle cell disease and thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.