DELAND, FLORIDA, August 14, 2007 – Area students are heading back to school and that means many are loading up on school supplies.  To help with this effort, Florida Hospital DeLand has donated 150 backpacks to the first and second grade classes of Starke Elementary School in DeLand for the fifth consecutive year.  Hospital employees gathered, sorted and stuffed enough backpacks with supplies so that every student in first and second grade would receive one. Additional school supplies were collected and donated to McInnis Elementary School in DeLeon Springs.

 The supplies requested this year included:

·        Pencils

·        Folders

·        Notebooks

·        Backpacks

“Florida Hospital DeLand has been donating backpacks to the students at Starke Elementary for the past five years. The backpack drive provides us with an opportunity to give back to our local community and support our future community leaders,” stated Florida Hospital DeLand Employee Health manager Ellen Hillyer who coordinated the effort this year.

Florida Hospital DeLand Chaplain Art Bakewell added, “Part of our mission is to contribute positively to the quality of life of our neighbors.  It is wonderful to see our mission in action and watching so many employees come together to make this backpack drive a reality and touch the lives of so many kids.”

Photo: Nigel Hinds, Florida Hospital DeLand Chief Financial Officer, assists with loading the school supplies for delivery to Starke Elementary.

Photo: Florida Hospital Deland employees loading school supplies for delivery to Starke Elementary.
 

Florida Hospital DeLand, located at 701 West Plymouth Avenue in DeLand, was established in 1962 and is a 156-bed acute-care hospital. The hospital was named to the Solucient Top 100 Performance Improvement Leaders list for the second consecutive year. The honor recognizes hospitals and their management teams for leading facilities to achieve the fastest rate of consistent annual organizational improvement among all U.S. hospitals. Florida Hospital DeLand is a member of the Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant not-for-profit hospital system in the nation.  For more information about Florida Hospital DeLand visit www.fhdeland.org.