Photo Gallery: Miss New Jersey Visits PSE&G Children's Specialized Hospital

PSE&G Children's Specialized Hospital wants you to consider wearing jeans to work next month to raise money for its patients.

National Miracle Jeans Day is a fund raising event scheduled for Sept. 12 in which businesses can sign up to allow their employees to wear jeans to work for the day in exchange for a $5, $10 or $20 donation.

All donations will go toward the Children's Miracle Network Program, which provides funding to families that need help in paying the medical bills of their sick children.

According to hospital spokesperson Rebecca Mazzarella, the Children's Miracle Network Program benefits 170 hospitals nationwide, but Children's Specialized Hospital is the only New Jersey organization that receives funding from the program.

Last year, Miracle Jeans Day raised about $6,000 last year, and the hospital is aiming to raise $10,000 for this year's event, said Kate Davis, Children's Miracle Network Program Manager for the Children's Specialized Hospital Foundation.

On Friday, Miss New Jersey 2012 Lindsay Petrosh, Miss South Shore Area 2013 Anna Negron, Miss South Shore Area's Outstanding Teen 2013 Alyssa Sullivan, Miss Eastern Shores Outstanding Teen Yulemni Morel and Miss Gloucester County Lindsey Giannini visited young patients at the hospital to decorate pairs of jeans in anticipation of the fundraiser.

Davis said that the fundraiser is open to businesses, municipal offices and students to participate in, and registration is open up until the day of the fundraiser. Miracle Jeans Day fundraisers can also be organized beyond Sept. 13, she said.

According to the hospital, Miracle Jeans Day has raised more than $2.5 million in the U.S. since it began in 2009.

For more information or to register to participate, call the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals team at Children’s Specialized Hospital Foundation at (908) 301-5538 or log on to www.miraclejeansday.com.

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