Firebirds Celebrate National Hospital Week with Playoff Tickets for Eisenhower Staff

In honor of National Hospital Week, the Coachella Valley Firebirds are giving back to the people who keep the desert healthy, gifting select Eisenhower Health staff members with tickets to the team's upcoming playoff game.

The gesture is part of an ongoing partnership between the Firebirds and Eisenhower Health, the Coachella Valley's only not-for-profit hospital. Fuego, the team's mascot, presented the tickets to staff during a celebration that included a banner signed by both healthcare workers and players each season since the team's first year.

Lee Rice of Eisenhower Health said the recognition means a lot to the people on the floor every day. "It really recognizes the team as a whole, what we do here, that our mission is really to serve, and that's what our employees do and they do it really well," Rice said.

Firebirds representative Brianne Ontiveros said the partnership runs deeper than game-night gestures, noting that the team's own doctors are Eisenhower physicians. "I think what's great about this partnership is that it lives well beyond every game night," Ontiveros said. "The team doctors are Eisenhower doctors, which is amazing. So this is just a full circle partnership that we're very proud of."

With the Firebirds still alive in the playoffs, that partnership looks set to keep growing.