AMC and United Way Join Forces to Reduce Illiteracy

9/4/2009

Eunice, Louisiana (September 4, 2009) Acadian Medical Center, located in Eunice, knows the value of tackling illiteracy during a child's optimum learning years between birth and age five, and is doing something about it. With a recent $2500 contribution, and customized brochures distributed through the hospital's maternity ward and waiting areas, Acadian Medical Center will help the state's first Dolly Parton Imagination Library provide books and information to parents of newborns.

St. Landry-Evangeline United Way is the first in the state to implement the children's literacy program, now in 45 states, Canada and the UK, founded by country music legend Dolly Parton.

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library program provides a free, age appropriate book to every child between birth and his/her fifth birthday who reside in the two-parish area. "When we were approached with the opportunity to not only contribute financially to the program, but to share with parents the importance of reading to babies, we seized that opportunity," says Michele Fruge, Director of Marketing for Acadian Medical Center. Babies born at Acadian Medical Center will be sent home with an Imagination Library brochure for parents to enroll their newborn into the program.

"Our hospital is in a unique position to possibly make an impact on the illiteracy and drop-out rate in our state by participating in the Imagination Library with St. Landry-Evangeline United Way. We are serving the families from all over the area by not only helping fund the program, but by sending them home with information about brain growth, the importance of language development, and how critical it is to lay the foundation for learning to read," cites Butch Frazier, CEO of Acadian Medical Center.