     Welcome to Al Bahr Shriners, located in San Diego California. Our mission is to combine friendship, family and fraternity with social activities and to provide support, both monetarily and by volunteer service to the "Worlds Greatest Philanthropy", the 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children.
     The Shriners Hospitals for Children, in 2008 and 2009, spend, for children $226,000 every 24 hours. As always, the state-of-the-art specialized orthopaedic, burn and spinal cord injury and Cleft Lip and Palate care is provided at absolutely no charge to the patients or their families.
     The 22 Shriners Hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have a total budget of $826 million for 2008. Of that amount, $722 million is designated for the operating budget, which includes patient care, teaching, administrative expenses, depreciation and the daily expenses for all the Shriners Hospitals; $44 million has been earmarked for research. During the nearly 86 - years history of the Shriners Hospitals, it has cost more than $8.2 billion to operate Shriners Hospitals, and over $1,76 billion has been spent on construction and renovation.
     Another $104 million of the budget is designated for buildings and equipment expenditures. The funds for the totally debt free hospitals are obtained from gifts, bequests, income from the endowment fund, hospital fund-raising events, and the annual hospital assessment paid by every Shriner.
     Al Bahr's Samaritan Driver's Club has volunteered to drive patients from the San Diego/Tijuana area to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles on a daily basis leaving at 6:00 am and returning the outpatient treated children (and guardian) by 6:00 pm; some making between 39 and 41 trips in 1 year. If you would like to know more about Shriners Hospitals for Children, please click on the following links: