Legacy Community Health continues to provide pediatric well-child visits and walk-in services at all clinic locations, while also dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All of our standalone clinics are open to serve the community with clinical, behavioral, dental, vison, and pharmacy services, and Legacy has added provisional “pop-up” clinics outside of our four busiest locations to screen and test for COVID-19.

Legacy’s Little Readers remains an active program even during these times and needed more than we could imagine, providing age-appropriate children’s books at all well-child visits for our youngest patients (newborns and 6 mo. – 12 years old). In addition to the physical checkup, families leave with a free book and a “prescription to read.”

Our book reserve is rapidly dwindling, during current state of the city, as stores close and shipping is delayed to prioritize medical supplies.  Oftentimes the books provided by Little Readers are the only children’s books our patient families have in their homes, so it is imperative we purchase new books to help families who have self-quarantined. These families already struggle to make ends meet, and they are now faced with the added burden of home schooling their children and providing them with alternatives to time spent in front of a screen.

You can help a young child stay on track and, in some cases, get a head start on a successful educational journey by becoming a Legacy’s Little Readers Champion. Through the Legacy’s Little Readers program, each child will receive a free, age-appropriate book at doctor visits with a “reading prescription” for parents to read the books to their children. Parents trust the advice they receive from their child’s doctor, and Legacy’s Little Readers will promote literacy in the special setting of the pediatric health exam room.

Books have an innate ability to spur a child’s imagination in a way other media, like movies, cannot. You can help the Little Readers program by providing books to take home for children who visit for a Well-Child checkup for as little as $3 a book. 

What was your favorite bedtime story when you were a child? What book did you love listening to as you fell asleep? What was the earliest book you remember reading yourself?

Share that love of reading with a new generation, take the steps to Become a Champion today!