“The situation in Cincinnati is precarious. There is no decline in the number of new cases. Physicians have been unable to determine the cause of the disease or to prescribe an effective treatment. Nurses on duty have been working 14 to 16 hours a day since the epidemic started. Their sacrifice and self-denial have been marvelous.” The Cincinnati Enquirer October 1918, at the onset of an influenza pandemic that will come to be known as the "Spanish Flu."

Cincinnati Children’s Gift Shop dates to 1910 with the founding of the Junior Co-operative Society. The volunteer organization begins as a social sewing group, making and selling white dresses and hemmed washcloths to families of hospitalized children. Their work evolves to make hand-made clown toys. By 1942, the Junior Co-op officially opens the hospital’s first gift shop. With the motto, "the more you shop, the more we give," Junior Co-Op members volunteer over 60,000 hours each year, and proceeds are donated back to the medical center.