Children's Hospital New Orleans is building a $10 million enrichment center featuring an aquarium and animal encounters among other amenities, nola.com reported Oct. 23.
The new 12,000-square-foot center, which is aimed to be complete in 2024, comes on the heels of a $300 million expansion at the hospital.
The center will be called Walker’s Imaginarium after Walker Beery, a 9-year-old New Orleans brain cancer patient who died in 2021. Walker started a local foundation to raise money for pediatric cancer before his death, and it has raised $1 million to date, according to the report. A committee, which has already organized a total of $4 million to date, has also been set up to fund the center.
The center, which will also have a working radio station to allow children to record jokes or send in music requests, plans to have visiting hours for healthy children to encourage play therapy with patients.