Students at Five Boston Area YMCAs Receive New Books Funded by Lahey Health EducationAd Advertising through CBS EcoMedia

Peabody, MA, August 6, 2013 /3BL Media/ – Students attending programs at the Peabody Torigian Family YMCA, Salem YMCA, Burbank YMCA in Reading and Haverhill YMCA are exercising both mind and body, and engaging critical reading skills this summer thanks to Lahey Health’s EducationAd advertising purchased through CBS EcoMedia.  The Cape Ann YMCA Veterans afterschool program will also receive books for their students. The financial support from Lahey Health is paying for new, age-appropriate books from the nonprofit social enterprise First Book, which provides underserved kids with brand-new, high-quality books and educational resources.

To celebrate the funding, Lahey Health and First Book, together with EcoMedia, held a special health and wellness-focused reading party today for the students at the Torigian Center YMCA in Peabody hosted by Robert Schneider, Chief Operating Officer, and the Senior Leadership team from Lahey Health and Crissy Jache, Branch Executive Director for the Torigian Family YMCA.  The reading party was part of the celebration recognizing Lahey Health’s funding of almost 3,000 new books for area students.

YMCA students enjoyed a fun-filled and educational morning starting with a short warm up exercise routine led by YMCA’s Youth and Family Program Director, Dan Elais, that got the students moving and helped them focus.  Larsen taught the students about the ingredients and nutritional value offered in the fruit and yogurt bar provided by Unidine and the students then created and enjoyed their own parfait masterpieces.  Following breakfast, Lahey Health’s senior leadership team and members of their Community Ambassadors program then divided the students into small groups and read some of the new books being distributed.  The special program ended with the distribution of new books to the very appreciative attending students.

“The loss of reading skills during the summer hits kids from low-income families especially hard,” said Teresa Pipia, Vice-President of Strategic Alliances for First Book. “But access to new and interesting books makes a world of difference. We’re grateful to Lahey Health for putting new books into the hands of area kids that need them most.”

“Today was a special and meaningful day for Lahey Health.  We witnessed first-hand the positive impact our organization made in our local community” said Robert Schneider, Chief Operating Officer of Lahey Medical Center, Peabody.  “Community is at the core of our mission and today we demonstrated that.  To witness the excitement and enjoyment the children displayed when we provided them with their books was powerful and gratifying for Lahey Health employees who volunteered at the event.”

“We are very grateful to Lahey Health for this wonderful opportunity to provide the Y’s children with books that many of them could not afford. Summer learning is a priority for the Y and this partnership with Lahey Health will greatly enhance our goal of supporting children’s learning all year round,” said Beth Tilley, the V.P. of Operations for the YMCA of Metro North.

“It is EcoMedia’s mission to address the most urgent social issues of our time; foremost amongst these are a lack of education funding and childhood obesity,” said Paul Polizzotto, Founder and President of CBS EcoMedia Inc. “These challenges, of course, are longstanding and deeply-rooted, and therefore require new and creative approaches. The public-private partnership we’re celebrating today is an example of one such solution. Thanks to the generous financial support provided by First Book and Lahey Health through EcoMedia’s EducationAd and WellnessAd programs, the young people who eat, study, and exercise at the Torigian Family YMCA will now have the new books they need to keep reading, learning and growing this summer.  This program is just one example of the quality of life improvements EcoMedia is bringing to communities across the United States and of the meaningful and powerful impact we can all make when we work together.”

About Lahey Health

Lahey Health is what's next in healthcare providing a full continuum of integrated health services close to where you live or work. It is comprised of nationally-recognized, award-winning hospitals - including an academic hospital and medical center, and community hospitals -- primary care providers, specialist physicians, behavioral health services, post-acute programs such as home health services, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, and senior care resources located throughout northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

Lahey Health offers nearly 1,000 locally-based physicians providing clinical excellence and an exceptional patient experience in adult and pediatric primary care and every medical specialty, including kidney and liver transplantation; cancer, cardiovascular and orthopedic medical and surgical care; local emergency and trauma care; urological surgery; chronic disease prevention and health management; and pediatric emergency, newborn and inpatient care provided in collaboration with Boston Children's Hospital physicians.

Lahey Health includes Lahey Hospital & Medical Center -- a teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine -- and Lahey Clinic physician group with practices in Burlington, Peabody and other locations throughout northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Beverly Hospital; Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, MA; Lahey Health Senior Care and Lahey Health Behavioral Services as well as more than 30 primary care physician practices and multiple outpatient and satellite specialty care facilities.

Together, we are making innovative, integrated healthcare more personal and more accessible. For more information, visit LaheyHealth.org and its member websites Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Beverly Hospital, and Lahey Health Behavioral Services.

About First Book

First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that distributed more than 100 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada.  By making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis, First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education. For more information, please visit them online or follow their latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.

At EcoMedia we're propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that's been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2008, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media.

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more.

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.