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ST. LOUIS — Six-year-old Hannah Kreutzer has a collection of her old prosthetic legs.

She gets to choose the fabric wrapped around each one, and some of her past legs have been covered with pictures of Minnie Mouse, and unicorns, and cupcakes.

Her fifth and current prosthetic leg, which is fitted just below the knee, is striped with bright rainbow colors.

The prosthetic does not slow her down. Her parents, Matt and Deanne Kreutzer, of Ballwin, say she is as rambunctious as any other 6-year-old. Even when her relentless activity damages the prosthetic foot, they just get it repaired.

“Hannah loves gymnastics, she loves doing cartwheels, she loves swimming, she loves running, she loves scootering,” says Matt Kreutzer.

“She can do 30 pull-ups. It blows people away when she does pull-ups. She has a tremendous strength-to-weight ratio. And she wrestles,” he says.

Hannah and her parents give the credit to Shriners Children’s Hospital. The institution, which is now in the hospital-laced Central West End of St. Louis, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

The Shriners hospital in St. Louis specializes in orthopedics, which is the treatment of muscles, bones and joints, though it also accepts a small number of children needing plastic surgery on their face or care for their chest wall.

Each of the 32 Shriners locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico has its own specialty, with most treating orthopedics, and they treat only children up to their 21st birthday (or 18 in some cases).

Because of the specialization, the hospital sees patients from all over the country and all over the world, says Hospital Administrator Mark Venable. And that’s not all that sets it apart and has helped it to thrive for a full century.

“We take care of patients regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status. If a patient’s family has insurance, we will accept that insurance, if it’s in network. But it’s never part of the consideration of if we give them care,” Venable says.

That part of the hospital’s mission has been a relief to Matt Kreutzer, Hannah’s father. At only 6, Hannah needs a new prosthetic every 18 months or so as she outgrows the old one. But when she hits growth spurts in her teen years, she may require as many as two new prosthetics a year.

“They’re impossible for a family to afford. But Shriners has been a really big deal,” he says.

According to Venable, the hospital can afford such a program because of support from the community, such as donations and gifts from wills. The Shriners fraternal organization, which founded and still owns the hospitals, also raises money for them, he says.

Brianna Hamann helps to raise money for the hospital, often with the help of the real estate company she works for, Cushman & Wakefield. She volunteers at the telethon and helps to make special blankets for the patients.

For her, it is a way of giving back to the institution that made a huge impact on her life.

Hamann was at Shriners, off and on, from the time she was 4 or 5 until she turned 21. She had contracted meningococcal meningitis when she was 3, and required both of her legs to be amputated above the knee.

She underwent more than 50 surgeries and was fitted for prosthetic legs, though at 32 she now uses a wheelchair.

“I wouldn’t be the person that I am today if it weren’t for the care that I got there,” she says.

But it’s not just the care, it’s the sense of belonging that made the difference.

“I didn’t have to worry about how I looked or how I was different, because everyone else in the room was, too, and it built up my self-confidence,” she says.

Hannah is benefitting from the same kind of self-confidence. A week ago, she brought her stuffed Shriners fez-wearing bear to her class’ show and tell. The other students had not even realized that she had a prosthetic limb, Deanne Kreutzer says.

“She was able to explain it in a way that was not scary for the kids,” she says.

The ebullient Hannah was picked to serve as an ambassador for the hospital. She has appeared in two commercials for it and is on the cover of the current issue of Leaders in Care, the Shriners hospitals magazine. She autographed several copies for the St. Louis hospital, which has them displayed in waiting rooms.

And she has received perhaps the biggest St. Louis celebrity perk of all: “One time, I got to do the first pitch at the Cardinals game,” she says.

The first Shriners Children’s Hospital was built in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1922. The polio epidemic was raging fiercely at the time, and the hospital was intended primarily to deal with the aftermath of the disease, says Venable, the hospital administrator.

The St. Louis location was built two years later, on Kingshighway Boulevard at Clayton Avenue, just a couple of blocks from its current location. It moved to Lindbergh Boulevard in Frontenac in 1963, and back to the Central West End at 4400 Clayton Avenue in 2015.

“It’s a special place where families can come to feel comfortable,” Venable says.

Part of that comfort begins with what Venable calls “wrap-around” care. At a family’s first visit, all the people they need to talk to are scheduled for a meeting, and it is all in one place. They don’t have to go down the street to get an x-ray, they don’t have to schedule another appointment to meet with a physical therapist.

At Hannah’s first appointment, she was even fitted for her first prosthetic, Deanne Kreutzer says.

Hannah was born with amniotic band syndrome. One leg was shorter than the other, and the foot on that leg was small and had no bones. Though she was nearly 2, she could only crawl when the Kreutzers adopted her and brought her home from India.

They had had her about four months before they first took her to Shriners in April 2020, at the height of COVID. At their first appointment, orthopedic surgeon Joe E. Gordon asked the Kreutzers if she could walk.

“Deanne and I looked at each other like he was a crazy person. How could she walk with those legs?” Matt Kreutzer said.

“He sent her home with a walker. After about two days, she threw that walker away and she was walking on her good leg. He intuited that she was holding out on us.”

Though she could walk, she had to bend over to do it. That wasn’t a problem when she was 2, but as she got older it would damage her back and her hip. Amputation was necessary, but the doctor suggested they wait a few months.

Hannah needed to bond with the family first, to become adjusted to her new home, her new country and to learn a new language. It was absolutely the right decision, the Kreutzers say.

“It’s been more than just a hospital for us. It’s been a way to process and gain confidence in a way that is such a blessing,” Deanne Kreutzer says.

The staff says they benefit from the experience as well.

Luhmann, the surgeon and chief of staff, says, “I feel every day I have an incredible mission in life, and I feel really blessed other people entrust their children to me. It’s a wonderful thing to do in life, to take care of children.”