HealthWorks! Kids’ Museum St. Louis, the region’s only venue solely dedicated to health “edutainment,” is pleased to announce the Mid-America Transplant Foundation has donated $34,800 in grant funding to help support its Recycle Life Project. This new initiative is designed to educate and reinforce the importance of preventive care and healthy life choices, while introducing the topic of organ and tissue donation in a way that is fun and easy to understand.
The Recycle Life Project is an interactive program for kids that will explain what organs are, where they are located in the body, how they function, which ones can be donated, who is eligible to do so, when it can be done and how organs are utilized to save lives. Most importantly, it will reinforce the role children can play in keeping organs healthy by addressing an array of health-related issues like obesity, high blood pressure, asthma, Type 2 Diabetes and more.
“Healthier kids mean healthier organs – and, healthier organs decrease the likelihood of needing an organ transplant and increase the probability of having a useable organ should one choose to donate later in life,” said Shannon Woodcock, president and chief executive officer of HealthWorks! Kids’ Museum St. Louis. “We are grateful for Mid-America Transplant Foundation’s willingness to partner with us as we use a unique mixture of education and entertainment to FUNdamentally change the way kids learn about healthy choices and recycling life.”
The grant funding will also be used to ensure that the program is accessible to all by providing hundreds of admission scholarships to low-income students.
HealthWorks! Kids’ Museum St. Louis is located at 1100 Macklind Ave., St. Louis, MO, 63110. General admission to the museum is $7 for ages three and up. Members and those under two are free. To learn more, call 314-241-7391, visit www.hwstl.org, like the museum on Facebook or follow them on Instagram @healthworkskidsstl.
For 45 years, Mid-America Transplant has facilitated and coordinated organ and tissue donation, serving 84 counties in eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and northeast Arkansas that are home to 4.7 million people. Federally designated as one of 58 organ procurement organizations in the U.S., it saves lives by providing expert and compassionate care for donors, donor families, and recipients, and transforms the processes required to recover organs and tissues. For more information, visit www.midamericatransplant.org.
HealthWorks! Kids’ Museum St. Louis came into existence as a result of efforts to expand The Delta Dental Health Theatre to address broader, overall health issues after Delta Dental of Missouri became a major corporate sponsor in 2004. Those plans evolved and grew more ambitious over the next several years, ultimately leading to the closure of the original theatre on Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis after 38 years so it could be housed in the new, dramatically expanded museum. The Delta Dental Health Theatre was originally organized as a program under the Foundation of the Greater St. Louis Dental Society in 1977. In 2002, it was incorporated as an independent 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization.
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For more information, contact:
Kelly Harris
(314) 436-9090
kelly@hausergrouppr.com