Oconto Falls – HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital is pleased to announce the Leon H. and Clymene M. Bond Foundation, Inc., has awarded a $30,000 grant to the Nurse’s Nook program.
Nurse’s Nook provides aid to children in need in the Gillett, Suring and Oconto Falls school districts. Aid provided includes basic needs items, non-perishable food, personal hygiene products, winter clothing and boots, medical supplies/devices and vouchers for transportation to medical appointments. These items are kept stocked within each of the school districts throughout the year and given to students free-of-charge on an as-needed basis. School nurses, guidance counselors and secretaries work as a team to identify the students in need.
The Bond Foundation grant will allow the Nurse’s Nook program to expand into the Lena and Oconto school districts in the 2018-2019 school year, and will allow for the purchase of more supplies to be provided to children in need.
Nurse’s Nook informally began in 2014 when Nuala Nowicki, a Prevea Health school nurse for the Gillett School District, recognized that poverty in the region was negatively impacting students’ abilities to learn and succeed in school. She expanded the program to the Suring School District in 2015. In 2017, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital joined Nuala in her efforts and assisted in expanding Nurse’s Nook to the Oconto Falls school district. Today, Nurse’s Nook operates as a collaborative effort between HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, Prevea Health, Nuala, local school districts and countless volunteers and donors who dedicate time and effort to collecting supplies, operating the program and helping children in need.
“We are immensely grateful to the Bond Foundation for this generous donation, which will greatly enhance our abilities to serve more children throughout Oconto County,” says Nuala. “It is our mission with Nurse’s Nook to provide local youth increased opportunities to learn and succeed in school, and become healthy, contributing members of the community.”
The Nurse’s Nook program relies solely on support and donations from the community to operate. Anyone who would like to learn more information or donate to Nurse’s Nook should contact Nuala Nowicki at thenursesnook@gmail.com or (920) 272-3415.
###
About HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital
HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital serves Oconto Falls and the surrounding communities as a federally-designated critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency department, urgent care, general, vascular and orthopedic surgical services, inpatient and outpatient surgical and diagnostic services, rehabilitation, oncology outpatient clinic, a comprehensive wound care center, dialysis center and women’s care. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, in affiliation with Prevea Health, has six regional health center locations in Gillett, Lena, Mountain, Oconto, Oconto Falls and Suring. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Pharmacies are located in Gillett and Oconto Falls. Founded in 1921 as Community Memorial Hospital, in 2014, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital became the fourteenth hospital in Hospital Sisters Health System. As an affiliate of Hospital Sisters Health System, we draw on the history of St. Francis of Assisi as we move to continue serving the health care needs of our area in Christ’s healing ministry, caring for all people. For more information about St. Clare, visit www.stclarememorial.org.
About Hospital Sisters Health System
Hospital Sisters Health System’s (HSHS) mission is to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry. HSHS provides state-of-the-art health care to our patients and is dedicated to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, at each of our 15 Local Systems and physician practices in Illinois (Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, O’Fallon, Shelbyville and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan, and two in Green Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org. For more information about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, visit www.hospitalsisters.org.