School may be out, but there’s still good reason for kids to hit the books this summer. On Monday, July 11, the Barbara S. Ponce Public Library in Pinellas Park will be giving away free books to kids throughout the area.

From 12 – 1 pm, Pinellas County’s Juvenile Welfare Board is bringing their Book Bus to the library, where kids of all ages are invited to hop aboard and pick out a free book. Advance registration is recommended to cut down on the wait time, and slots can be reserved by calling 727-369-0664.

The Barbara S. Ponce Public Library is located at 7770 52nd Street, and attendance is free and open to all. The book giveaway is part of the Juvenile Welfare Board’s commitment to making children a priority, advocating for their best interests and investing to improve their futures. A need for access to books and the urgency of developing reading skills led to the creation of JWB’s Book Bus, which tours Pinellas County, offering free books to youth throughout the summer.

Of course, the Book Bus is only one of many free events the Ponce Library puts on as part of its summer programming. Other fun experiences for children include afternoon movies, Creatures of the Deep (an exploration of the deepest, darkest zones of the ocean on June 29), free community ASL classes all summer, a chess club, a gamer guild, and an end-of-summer pool party weekend coming July 30-31. Several ocean-themed programs are worth checking out as well, including Ocean Guardians, sea creature storytimes, and Seuss Under the Sea.

Learn more about Pinellas Park’s Barbara S. Ponce Public Library and their programming here, and also check out all the great things being done by the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County.

Read the article on ILovetheBurg.com: https://ilovetheburg.com/book-bus-pinellas-park/

With Father’s Day just around the corner, there’s a relatively new program in our area dedicated to helping dads stay in their children’s lives and become more positive role models.

It’s called Gold Medal Dads — and its impact could last generations.

“This program was definitely a lifesaver for me,” said Jaycob Strubbe, a proud father of three sons.

“My world. They’re my world,” he said.

But Strubbe wasn’t always sure he’d be a good dad since he didn’t have what he considered an ideal father figure of his own growing up.

“Me knowing that, and me knowing that that’s how I was raised, I wanted to do better by my kids. So, I started learning about how I could have tools and other ways of interacting with my kids that wouldn’t require me being angry or me hitting them or me yelling at them,” Strubbe said.

That’s what led him to Gold Medal Dads — a program that started just a few months ago in Pinellas County helping men who may have themselves had absentee or abusive fathers fill that gap.

“The response has been great,” said Reggie Randolph with Healthy Families’ Father Services, which operates Gold Medal Dads.

The program provides men whose children are newborn to age 17 with the tools they need to become supportive fathers such as educational materials, home visits, referrals to other community services and resources.

“Bring them back into the families,” Randolph said. “And show them and share with them their importance.”

In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill setting aside $70 million for programs aimed at equipping dads with the tools they need to be better parents.

“When you take kids that do not have a father present during their upbringing the chances of them dropping out of school, getting in trouble with the law, having other difficulties, increases dramatically,” DeSantis said.

Gold Medal Dads aims to break the cycle of abuse or absenteeism by holistically helping fathers become responsible role models and an influence not just in their children’s lives but, perhaps, for generations to come.

“When you’re a kid, you don’t really see why the person you love the most and that is your superhero is treating you that way,” Strubbe said. “So, I wanted to fix that for my kids.”

Gold Medal Dads is one of several programs in Pinellas County dedicated to fostering fatherhood. For more information, people are encouraged to contact the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County or the Florida Department of Health office.

“Every day is Father’s Day,” Randolph said. “And the celebration is what we’re trying to have fathers understand and understand their importance. Not only for the children, but for our communities. We need more dads involved in our communities.”

Read the article and watch the video at https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pinellascounty/gold-medal-dads-pinellas-county/67-b536d855-5168-41ae-874d-736d00ac6385

The summer break has just begun, but it’s not too early for families to get a jump on next school year by taking care of their child’s health screenings starting Monday, June 13.

The Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County is again offering its annual summer Back-to-School clinic services to students in kindergarten through grade 12 to prepare for the 2022-23 school year. Note that children going into pre-k are not eligible.

The school-based health clinics will provide school, sports and well child physicals, including immunizations, at no cost for clients.

Vision screenings provided by Preserve Vision Florida will be available at select locations, and basic dental services will also be available.

The last day to receive services is Monday, Aug. 8.

The services will be provided at no cost by appointment only between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the following locations:

• Boca Ciega High School Clinic: 924 58th St. S.
• Gibbs High School Clinic: 850 34th St. S.
• Largo High School Clinic: 410 Missouri Ave.
• Pinellas Park High School Clinic: 6305 118th Ave N.

For appointments, call 727-824-6900 and select menu option 4. A parent or guardian must bring the child’s immunization and medical records and be present for services. If the parent is not able to be present, a consent must be obtained prior to receiving services.

Forms are located here.

All Pinellas children entering kindergarten on Aug. 10 are required to present a school entrance physical, dated within one year of school enrollment.

DOH-Pinellas’ school-based health clinics are a partnership with the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County.

For more information about DOH-Pinellas, click here.

Read this article on Patch: https://patch.com/florida/largo/pinellas-county-begin-offering-physicals-immunizations-week

May was National Drowning Prevention Month, as the lead-in to the summer swimming season is an ideal time to raise awareness to the sobering facts about drowning deaths in America.

According to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, drowning is the single-leading cause of death in children ages 1-4, and the most common cause of drowning is not knowing how to swim. As drownings can happen in as fast as 30 seconds and often occur with at least one adult present, organizations and agencies use May to get the word out and hold programs designed to promote water safety for kids.

At the North Greenwood Recreation Complex in Clearwater, a collaboration between the city, Pinellas County Schools, the Juvenile Welfare Board and Clearwater for Youth saw more than 170 Belleair Elementary School students learn how to swim as part of a free program held over two weeks in May.

“This program recently took place for the first time at the Long Center, and it was amazing to see so many children learn how to swim,” Clearwater Recreation Division Manager Sandy Clayton said in an email promoting the new program, which was held at the North Greenwood Recreation Center Pool at 900 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. According to Clayton, the students traveled on a bus provided by CFY to attend the swim lessons during their regularly scheduled PE time before returning to school to resume their day, and she said the goal is to expand the program and “to add a new school to the list each year.” 

On May 18, a group of Belleair first graders were led by aquatics supervisor Thomas Heine to the pool, where they were given lessons by certified instructors and treated to free swim googles, caps and T-shirts, as well as some fun time in the spray pool following the half-hour classes.

According to Brooke Bennett, the three-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer and CFY board member who was overseeing the kids’ transportation, the importance of the program can’t be overstated.

“It’s hard to put into words the importance of this program and the emotions I feel seeing it come to fruition,” Bennett said as she helped Heine get the group situated. “It’s very moving to me.”

Bennett, who earned three gold medals, including two in the 800-meter freestyle event during the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, has enjoyed a busy post-competition career that’s included a stint in television as well as coaching kids. She said she believes drowning prevention and water safety should start at an early age.

“I think swim lessons for 3-year-olds should be covered by insurance, and every child under the age of 1 should have an introduction to water,” Bennett said. “They spend 40 weeks in water before being born and are very instinctual in water up to the age of 1. That’s why I love teaching babies, because there’s no fear at that age whereas the older they are, the more the fear is there.”

Before heading out into the blistering heat, Bennett praised the program and its ability to save lives.

“This program can be an example at the county, state and national level because we need to educate people that drowning is preventable,” she said. “Accidental drowning is the leading cause of death in 1- to 4-year-olds, so by doing water safety programs like this, we’re changing this statistic.”

For more information on Clearwater’s swim programs, visit myclearwater.com.

Read the article on TBNweekly.com: https://www.tbnweekly.com/clearwater_beacon/article_aea1b85e-e10a-11ec-8994-3b833edd64e3.html