Caption: Don Seiple, president of St. Luke’s Monroe Campus, reads to kindergarten students at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Kresgeville as part of Read Across America Week to promote the importance of literacy and encourage students to become lifelong readers.

Since 2018, a team of volunteers from St. Luke’s Monroe Campus has participated in Read Across America at Clear Run Elementary School. Read Across America provides an opportunity to further bring our St. Luke’s staff and mentoring initiatives to our schools to demonstrate commitment to the communities we serve.

“We are honored to partner with the schools, as they play a vital role in fostering a love for reading – a skill which expands vocabulary, improves writing skills and develops critical thinking skills, all of which are key to achieving success,” said Don Seiple, president of St. Luke’s Monroe Campus.

“In 2023, we expanded the program to include one elementary school in each of the four Monroe County school districts: Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mountain and East Stroudsburg,” Seiple added. “Through this partnership, we hope to play a small part in inspiring the students to discover the joy of reading and a lifelong love for books.  Our team truly enjoys reading and interacting with the students, as each story shared becomes a steppingstone to a brighter future.”

Read Across America, which officially began on the birthday of author Dr. Seuss (March 2), is dedicated to literacy and aims to encourage reading while educating people about its benefits. Reading and related activities were planned throughout the day on March 3 at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Bethlehem.

Guest readers included Ralph Greco and Joe Swarctz, author and illustrator of Echo City Capers children’s books, and Margaret Place, a St. Luke’s volunteer. They read books to pediatric patients in the playroom or in their rooms if they couldn’t attend the playroom readings. Staff also distributed age-appropriate books and stuffed animals to pediatric patients who were hospitalized and those who came for outpatient procedures throughout the day. Several other Dr. Seuss-themed activities took place.

St. Luke’s Department of Community Health is partnering with more than two dozen schools throughout the community. More than 100 St. Luke’s staff will read to approximately 10,000 of the Lehigh Valley’s urban and rural students throughout the week.

St. Luke’s identifies needs through its Community Health Needs Assessments and partners with school communities throughout the year to consistently connect students, staff and families to care, education and resources. Visit https://www.slhn.org/community-health/community-health-needs-assessment for more information.

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2021 when it was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. In 2021, St. Luke’s was also identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy