If your child needs a specialist
we’ll get them there.
The nearest pediatric specialist is hundreds of miles away — in Tampa, at Shriners Children’s. We drive the kids of the Florida Keys to that appointment, and home again, and your family is never asked to pay for the trip or the care.
Keys kids who need care that isn’t on the islands.
- Your child lives in the Florida Keys — from Key Largo to Key West.
- A doctor has recommended (or you suspect they need) specialty pediatric care that isn’t available locally. Common reasons: orthopedics, burn care, cleft lip and palate, spinal differences, or other complex surgical or rehabilitation needs.
- The specialist your child needs is at Shriners Children’s in Tampa, or another Shriners hospital. We help families reach the Tampa hospital first; for other Shriners hospitals we’ll connect you to the right club.
- Cost is the obstacle — or you simply don’t want it to be. There is no income test. We don’t ask. The trip is free regardless of what your family earns.
Not sure if your child qualifies? Call anyway. If we’re not the right fit we’ll point you to someone who is.
From your first call to the drive home.
- 01
You call or email.
Reach Kurt at (305) 481-4838 or our hospital liaison, Dennis Asbeary, through the club. Tell us what care your child needs and roughly when. No paperwork yet.
- 02
We help with the Shriners Children’s application.
Shriners Children’s treats kids based on medical need, not insurance status. We walk you through the patient referral form so the hospital can confirm your child’s appointment in Tampa.
- 03
We arrange the trip.
A volunteer driver, a flight, lodging if the appointment runs long — whatever the visit needs. The club covers it from the Patient Transport Fund. You don’t hand us a credit card.
- 04
Your child sees the specialist.
Shriners Children’s Tampa handles the medical care directly and bills no family in the United States for treatment. We handle getting you there and back.
- 05
And again next week, if needed.
Many treatments are not one-and-done. We do this for as long as your child’s care continues. The 487-mile round trip from Marathon to Tampa is our problem, not yours.
Nothing. There is no bill.
Gas, mileage, flights when driving isn’t possible.
Hotel or Ronald McDonald House for multi-day visits.
Shriners Children’s does not bill U.S. families for care.
We cover the family’s food and incidentals during travel.
An all-volunteer chapter, doing this for decades.
The Marathon Shrine Club is a member club of the Mahi Shriners in Miami, operating under the Shriners International group exemption (EIN 59-1924702, IRS section 501(c)(10), group ruling November 1940). Our hospital liaison coordinates directly with the patient transport team at Shriners Children’s in Tampa. There are no paid staff; every officer and driver is a volunteer.
If a Keys family contacts us and we can’t help directly — wrong region, wrong hospital, wrong specialty — we’ll connect you with the Shriner chapter that can.