News : Virginia Gay Hospital Health Care Foundation receives Community Grant

The Virginia Gay Hospital Health Care Foundation (VGHHCF) is pleased to announce receiving a Theisen’s More for Your Community Grant of $1,600 to support the Reach Out and Read program. Foundation board members Don Eells and Don Logan joined Foundation director Robin Martin to accept the check from Vinton Theisen’s Store Manager, Tim Tietz on Monday, November 12. The annual Theisen’s More for Your Community corporate grant program makes grants to all Theisen store communities. The program provides grants to agencies that most effectively and directly serve the basic needs of families and children Theisen grants specifically focus on food, shelter, education, safety, and health. The Virginia Gay Hospital Health Care Foundation was one of more than 462 applications submitted in 2018. “Virginia Gay Hospital is grateful to Theisens for their support of the Reach Out and Read program, and for providing the grant to help the medical providers of Virginia Gay Family Medical Clinics. The Reach Out and Read program promotes lifelong success for kids by promoting early childhood literacy. The more words a child hears from a caring adult, the better prepared they are for learning to read. Children who come to the Virginia Gay Family Medical Clinics will receive a book at each of their well-child checks between the ages of 6months to 5 years of age and will have a library of 15 books by the time they begin kindergarten,” said Robin Martin, director for VGHHCF. Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based, national nonprofit organization that prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with healthcare providers to provide books and encourage families to read together. The end goal of Reach Out and Read is to prepare all children who enter kindergarten to read, learn, and succeed. VGHHCF’s Reach Out and Read program began in 2014 with presentations to the community by Dr. Maggie Mangold, M.D. and Jen Blix, LPN from the Vinton Family Medical Clinic. All four Virginia Gay Hospital family medical clinics, Atkins, Urbana, Van Horne, and Vinton, participate in the program. In addition to the Theisen’s grant, VHGGCF is encouraging the public to give the gift of reading during November. A donation of $20 provides a pediatric patient with new books at each well-child visit for an entire year. To learn more about the Virginia Gay Hospital Health Care Foundation and its programs including Reach and Out and Read, please visit www.myfoundation.org.