Press Releases

Read to Grow at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital Receives Funds

5/5/2009

Read to Grow has received a $15,000 grant from The Citizens Bank Foundation for the Books for Babies program at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. Citizens Bank has been supporting Books for Babies at L&M since 2001 when the program began at the hospital.

Serving approximately 1,800 families in the New London area each year, Books for Babies provides a “literacy bag” with a new children’s book and an informational guide for parents to all babies born in participating birthing hospitals. Books for Babies reaches 50% of all Connecticut newborns and their families through partnerships with L&M Hospital and seven other hospitals that currently provide the program.

"Reading is a lifelong activity and we know it is never too early to start.  Citizens Bank is proud to continue a long-standing partnership with our friends at Read to Grow as they bring their programs and services to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and the greater New London Community," said Richard Barry, president of Citizens Bank in Connecticut.

Read to Grow is a statewide nonprofit organization founded in 1998 that promotes early literacy by encouraging parents to take an active role in their child’s language and literacy development beginning at birth, and by providing free children's books to families and to the programs that serve them.

A second program, Books for Kids, provides free books to children with limited access to books, from birth to middle school, to help build their at-home libraries and encourage family reading.

Last year, Read to Grow distributed more than 110,000 new and gently used books to children across the state, directly to families and in partnership with a multitude of health, education and community organizations.

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