February 25, 2003

Caring Foundation Donation

            New Castle, PA – A way to create safer childcare within Lawrence County received a large boost today thanks to the Lawrence County Caring Foundation.

            At a press conference held at Jameson Memorial Hospital, Wayne Alexander and Thomas White, co-founders of the Lawrence County Caring Foundation, presented Cheryl Pilch, director, Child Care Information Service Agency for Lawrence County (CCIS), with a $1,500 donation.  It will be used to assist Lawrence County childcare providers and daycare centers in creating safety procedures and plans for weather, natural, or national emergencies.

            During an emergency, time and conveying accurate information is crucial.  It would be almost impossible to contact all of the childcare providers.  Pilch took thisconcern to the taskforce who submitted a grant application requesting $5,000 from the State to support the acquisition of the emergency scanners.  The state denied this request.

            Alexander was determined to find a way to locally fund this project.  He contacted his co-founder and the vice-president of the Caring Foundation, Thomas White, who is also the CEO and President of the Jameson Health System.

            Alexander explained that he thought this project would compliment the mission of the Caring Foundation.

            “This is a local project that I have a tremendous amount of respect for,” White said.  White went further to explain that Alexander and he formed the Lawrence County Caring Foundation in 1988 to provide free to low cost health insurance for income eligible children living within Lawrence County.  The local foundation was one of the very first in the nation to provide health insurance to children who were not covered by their parents’ health insurance, or whose parents could not afford to purchase health insurance for their children.  The foundation’s insurance program eventually served as a model for Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); currently administered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

            “The effort to prepare adults, who willingly accept the responsibility to care for children, in having a plan to respond to a health or other emergency is so important these days,” White explained.  “It is the spirit that we had when forming the Lawrence County Caring Foundation, and it is the important guiding principle we live by throughout the Jameson Health System,” he added.

            Alexander stated that with the $1,500 contributed by the Foundation, a total of $3,000 has been secured from other sources.  “We need $5,000 to purchase the first fifty scanners and to train the first group of childcare providers,” stated Alexander. 

            Anyone wishing to make a contribution should contact Cheryl Pilch at 724-658-8874.

###