Legacy Foundation Grant Committee member Bob Spajer, left, cuts the ribbon on a new mobile library for the Franciscan Health Crown Point NICU. Joining Spajer are (l-r) NICU Manager Jennifer Creighton, Legacy Foundation Grants Coordinator Kelly Baer, Northwest Indiana Literacy Council Treasurer Dr. Sharon Pratt and Northwest Indiana Literacy Council Secretary Deb Carlson. (Photo provided, Franciscan Health)
Franciscan Health Crown Point NICU Manager Jennifer Creighton, BSN, RN, stands with the new mobile lending library donated by the Northwest Indiana Literacy Council. (Photo provided, Franciscan Health)
In Lake County, hospital officials say families with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Franciscan Health Crown Point now have a variety of children’s books to read to their little ones. A new mobile lending library was officially donated this week by members of the Northwest Indiana Literacy Council. Dr. Sharon Pratt, associate professor of elementary and literacy education at Indiana University Northwest in Gary and treasurer of the Northwest Indiana Literacy Council, helped lead the project. Pratt said she wears many hats, including as a professor, Northwest Indiana Literacy Council board member, former elementary school teacher, and mom of two boys who were born prematurely. The new mobile library was made possible in part through a $2,500 Transforming Lake County grant from the Legacy Foundation funded by Legacy Foundation Grant Committee member Bob Spajer of Crown Point. a news release said. “Reading has been an important part of our family from the minute our boys came home from the hospital,” Spajer said. “I believe in the science behind this and the lasting effects it can provide for families and children. You can change a family’s and a kid’s trajectory forever.” Franciscan Health Crown Point NICU Manager Jennifer Creighton, BSN, RN, said the mobile library is, “something that is really needed.” “Just having something to do, to interact with their babies and kind of make it normal is so wonderful for them,” Creighton added.
