TRHMC and United Way Prepare to "Stuff the Bus"

Sunday, August 08, 2010

The Reading Hospital and Medical Center’s Magnet Champion Team has partnered with United Way of Berks County to coordinate Stuff the Bus, a Hospital-wide endeavor to collect enough school supplies and uniforms for children in need in our community to fill a school bus. Hospital departments are collecting backpacks and boxes filled with supplies and uniforms, which will be loaded on the school bus on Wednesday, August 18.

Uniforms and supplies will be distributed to children who are unable to afford them for themselves, including students in the Berks County Homeless Student Program, Reading School District, and other local youth-serving agencies.
Sharon Mast, Director of Volunteer Engagement, United Way of Berks County, shared with Magnet Champions some staggering statistics regarding the needs of students in Berks County:

• Approximately 70 percent of children entering kindergarten in the Reading School District lack one or more of the skills needed to be successful in school.
• An estimated 17 percent of children under the age of 5 in Berks County live in poverty. That number jumps to 52.3 percent of children under the age of 5, if they live in the city of Reading.
• About 10,600 different people receive emergency food assistance in Berks County on any given week.
• 43 percent of clients served by the Greater Berks Food Bank report having to choose between paying rent and utilities or buying food for themselves and their families.

The Reading Hospital Magnet Champion Team is a group of dedicated nurses who help to drive the Hospital’s journey to Magnet excellence. Community involvement is one of the 14 “Forces of Magnetism” that are the basis for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet designation program.