Jacksonville, Fla. – The Pediatric Sickle Cell Center at Shands Jacksonville/Nemours Children’s Clinic is sponsoring the Second Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebrity Read-a-Thon. The event will be held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jan. 17 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the center, located at 555 West 11th Street.
Several local celebrities will be on hand to read to children and their families. They include doctors, nurses, storytellers, city council members, boy scouts and other citizens of the community.
Also during this time, there will be a special time to honor Dr. King. “He was a motivator who challenged students to set and achieve high goals regardless of the obstacles,” says Elzora Brown, Sickle Cell Tutorial Instructor for the Pediatric Sickle Cell Center at Shands Jacksonville/Nemours Children’s Clinic. “Our patients overcome their own set of obstacles. We hope to continue King’s motivation, which is to encourage them to not give up on their dreams.”
The Pediatric Sickle Cell Center at Shands Jacksonville hopes the Read-a-thon will encourage reading among sickle cell children and their family members. The center promotes literacy by challenging them to read books, magazines, box labels, signs, computer software directions, internet sources, and everyday encounters.
For more information concerning the read-a-thon, please contact Elzora Brown at (904) 244-3771.