Beginning in March, the Friends of the Crown Point Library partnered with St. Clare Health Clinic’s Prenatal Assistance Program to sponsor an early literacy initiative to help educate expectant and new mothers about the importance of reading to their babies. The Crown Point Gamma Theta Chapter of Tri Kappa also presented the Friends group with a $250 donation to be applied to the effort.
The Crown Point Community Library offers a story time program, called Book Babies, which is designed for children from birth to age 3, and offers ideas of how parents can read to a baby, what to read and what to expect in the first year to help give an infant a “book baby beginning.” Corinne Sons, Robert Covarrubias and 3-month-old Robbie Covarrubias Jr., recently visited the library to accept the first book baby beginning package. Mothers receive at their post-partum visit a library bag of goodies, which includes a book, a $5 coupon to the Friends Ongoing Book Sale, information on how to raise a book baby, suggested reading lists and a library card application. For more information about the program, call (219) 306-8068. St. Clare Health Clinic, which is under the auspices of Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Crown Point, offers free assistance to qualified uninsured and underinsured area residents.