Kick off the holiday season by sending unique holiday cards to your family and friends! Holiday cards featuring children’s artwork are on sale through the Reach Out and Read programs at the Health Science Center. A box of 20 cards is $10 and you can choose from 10 different designs. Proceeds from the card sales will be used to purchase books for the Reach Out and Read program at the Health Science Center.
Reach Out and Read is a national, nonprofit program that seeks to improve early literacy by intervening with families during their visits to the clinic for well-child checkups. Children who live in an environment with books and are read to in their preschool years have proven to be more likely to learn to read on schedule. Through the Reach Out and Read program, physicians educate parents about the importance of reading to their children, and offer age-appropriate tips and encouragement. At all well-child checkups for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, the child is given a new book to take home and keep. Children are able to begin school with a home library of nine children’s books, and parents have a better understanding of the importance of reading to their children.
The Health Science Center has two active Reach Out and Read programs, through the Children’s Health Center and the PREMIEre Program. These programs distribute approximately 4,000 books per year to San Antonio children. For more information, visit
www.reachoutandread.org.
The holiday card project was made possible by a generous grant from the San Antonio Area Foundation from the Semp Russ Foundation.
To see the holiday card brochure, click on
www.pediatrics.uthscsa.edu/generalpeds/reachout.asp.
