Special to The Hays Daily News

Hays area children will benefit from a $1,200 gift from the Hays Rotary Club to the Kansas Pediatric Foundation. The donation is directed to the Foundation's "Turn a Page. Touch a Mind" program at Hays Pediatric Center.

Rotary long has been a proponent of literacy programs, Hays Rotary President Wayne Woofter said.

"Dr. Robert Cox, Hays pediatrician and member of our club, brought this program to our attention as a way we could make a difference on the local level," Woofter said.

The "Turn a Page. Touch a Mind" program was adopted at Hays Pediatric Center in 2007. Annually, the program distributes 3,500 new, developmentally appropriate books to local children while encouraging their parents to read aloud to them daily.

The statewide program addresses the early literacy and the school readiness of Kansas children. Pediatricians at Hays Pediatric Center are in unique positions to encourage reading because they are a trusted source of guidance and have ongoing contacts with children and their parents through well-child visits. At each well-child visit from 6 months to 5 years of age, the pediatrician gives the child a new book and advises the parents about the importance of reading aloud daily to their child. It reinforces the parents' role as the first and most important teacher and gives parents the tools (books) needed to help their children succeed.

Books funded by the Hays Rotary Club gift will have special Rotary stickers placed inside the covers. The Rotary contribution funds approximately 600 new books for the Hays Pediatric Center.