Mercy Hospital of Northwest Arkansas – Literacy Bags for Students and Families

Overview

Children raised in homes that promote family literacy grow up to be better readers and perform better in school than children raised where literacy is not promoted. Therefore, Mercy Hospital of Northwest Arkansas auxiliary initiated the community service project of providing “Literacy Bags for Students and Families” to help underprivileged children maintain literacy skills during the summer break. They selected a local school, Bonnie Grimes Elementary, whose student population met the criteria of being socioeconomically underprivileged. To assist students at a young age, the first-grade children were chosen as the target population. After contacting the principal and first-grade teachers and explaining the goals of the project, the idea of providing “Literacy Bags for Students and Families” was readily accepted.

Impact

Since 2014, 180 literacy bags have been distributed to the first-grade students by the Mercy auxiliary. Items hand-sewn by auxiliary members were the bags, the puppets and pencil pouches. The bags also contained crayons, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers and activity books appropriate to the first-grade level. In addition, the students’ teachers selected three books based on each child’s reading level. The auxiliary members also presented the personalized literacy bags to the children at a special school assembly at the end of the year. The proud first-graders at Bonnie Grimes Elementary took their prized possessions home to share with their parents. To show the teachers’ and students’ appreciation for these gifts, thank you cards, posters and a large banner were created by the children, which were then displayed in the Mercy Hospital lobby.

Broad support for literacy is also demonstrated throughout the Mercy Hospital of Northwest Arkansas through the Reach Out and Read Program that has been in place since 2013. Reach Out and Read is a nonprofit organization that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together. Each pediatric clinic in the Mercy system is involved in this program, and books are given to the young patients at wellness visits. As of August 2016, 15,145 books had been distributed to children, and the Mercy Hospital auxiliary has assisted financially by donating $13,000 to purchase books.

Lessons Learned

The new books provided to the children must be purchased, so the auxiliary had to be creative to raise the money to purchase the books. One-year volunteers were invited to make a donation toward the expense at the annual Spring Appreciation event. Coworkers were also invited to “sponsor” a child and make a donation.

Contact: Holli Oliver
Director of Volunteer Services
Telephone: 479-338-2188
Email: holli.oliver@mercy.net