For Immediate Release
October 13, 2008

Reach Out and Read program comes to Newport News
Story-time will feature educator, lawmaker and business leader

Emphasizing the importance of reading, local community leaders will participate in the Reach Out and Read program from 10:30 to 11;30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 27, at Riverside Pediatric and Family Center, 10510 Jefferson Ave., Newport News, Va..

Dr. Ashby Kilgore, Superintendent of Schools, Delegate Phillip Hamilton, 93rd District, John Stegeman, President and CEO of Ferguson, and his wife Cindy Stegeman will read one of their favorite books to a group of preschool children at the medical center as part of a state-wide effort to enhance the literacy development of young children.

Reach Out and Read (ROR) makes literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care so that children grow up with books and a love of reading. ROR doctors have traded in their lollipops to prescribe new books to their young patients (ages 6 months to 5 years). ROR’s goal is to make sure that, by the time a child starts kindergarten, they are ready. Parents are often learning the value of reading to their kids for the first time through their pediatricians and how children learn in their various stages of growth. In the end, everyone wins.  Doctors build stronger relationships with their patients (and their parents), parents bond with their kids and the children get a head-start on learning. Andit starts a lifelong love of books for ROR children.

“Reading to our children stimulates thought and provides wonderful building blocks for young minds.” said John Stegeman, President and CEO of Ferguson.

Riverside Pediatric and Family Center is one of more than 3, 800 locations nationally that are prescribing books as part of a healthy childhoods in local communities.

For more information about Reach Out and Read Virginia, or to donate funds or volunteer as a reader, contact Sue Rockwell at (804) 521-0425.

Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read is a national, non-profit program that is working to make literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care, so that children grow up with books and a love of reading. ROR trains doctors and nurses about the importance of reading aloud and to give books to children at pediatric check-ups from six months to five years of age, with a special focus on children growing up in poverty. This year Reach Out and Read will provide more than 4.9 million books to more than 3 million children, at over 3,600 programs throughout the country. 

Reach Out and Read Virginia is a statewide coalition focused on ROR expansion, quality assurance, and collaborative fundraising in the Commonwealth.  In Virginia, ROR now reaches over 110,000 children age five and younger and their families annually, at 110 clinical locations.  Over 1,000 doctors and nurses in Virginia now advise parents on the importance of reading aloud to young children and distribute over 175,000 new children’s books annually.

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