The best we as a society can offer to one another is the love and care we give to our children.

Along these lines, St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., is the site of love and compassion in action. In Bowling Green, the St. Jude Dream Home this year provides those in our community a chance to win a new home but more importantly, gives us a chance to contribute to the hospital, which gets the proceeds from ticket sales.

The Memphis facility is internationally recognized for its research and its treatment of children suffering from cancer and other devastating diseases. Parents magazine ranked the facility as the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital in the nation.

But it’s the faces of those suffering children there that we should remember when deciding whether to buy a $100 ticket for a chance to win the home being built in The Oaks subdivision at 151 Oak Ridge Way. The giveaway will be televised Sept. 18. The home will be 2,950 square feet, with four bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths, plus an oversized two-car garage.

In 2010, the campaign netted $672,100. Health care, as we are painfully aware, is incredibly expensive. Children receive care at St. Jude regardless of their families’ ability to pay. That means children get world-class health care and it’s events such as the St. Jude Dream Home that help provide that level of love and care.

Sweets Design Build is the home contractor. Labor and materials are donated. The home will be crafted with quality workmanship, all with the children’s health care in mind.

Tickets sales will begin June 3.

The hospital opened in 1962, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. An average of 5,700 patients are treated at the facility each year. It is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment beyond what their insurance pays for.

No child is turned away.

Visit stjude.org for more details about how to help financially.

One easy way to help in Bowling Green is to buy a ticket for the St. Jude Dream Home. We encourage all who have the means to take a chance on a house and at the same time, give children more hope for their bodies to be healed.