Becky Miller, the community coordinator for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH), met with the Union County Business and Professional Association on Feb. 11. Miller serves 16 counties in East Tennessee as the liaison between outlying schools and the hospital. ETCH, the primary provider of pediatric care in East Tennessee for the past 80 years, offers this care regardless of a family’s ability to pay. The hospital partners with adult facilities in Knox County to provide on-site neonatal nurses to support newborns and has a close relationship with all area hospitals to ensure they are prepared to care for children. It also provides training and supplies when needed.

ETCH has several exciting programs available to families throughout East Tennessee:

Project ADAM East Tennessee
This program is named after Adam Lemel, who at 17 years old collapsed and died on a school basketball court. The startling statistics are that 1 out of 500 school-age children die every year as a result of cardiac arrest. ETCH, as the lead organization for Project ADAM, seeks to prevent sudden cardiac death in school-age children through education, prevention (including installing automatic external defibrillators) and research. The program has 25 affiliates across the nation and the hospital is proud to be a part of that program. For more information about Project ADAM visit www.etch.com/ProjectADAM.

Injury Prevention
- Car seat inspections
- Child passenger safety technician course: This is a three-day program where the hospital certifies technicians to inspect car seats to assure they are correctly installed. The program also supplies car seat safety stickers to help first responders in the event of an emergency; it is a bright yellow sticker applied to the car seat.
- Poison prevention: For poison control call 1-800-222-1222.
- Bike safety: A speaker will address 2nd and 3rd graders about bike and helmet safety.
- Water safety: Various water safety programs are available throughout our communities.
- Fire safety: Offered in partnerships with local fire departments to provide fire safety literature.

Education Classes
- Safe Sitter: A course for 11 to 14-year olds is offered one Saturday per month at the hospital and has a cost of $26. Included for that fee are a certificate of completion, a handbook, and lunch. (We immediately got into a discussion about teenagers known by Association members who would love to take advantage of this course, but for whom transportation may be a problem. We discussed ways in which we might bring the training to Union County, or find a way to transport kids to the class.)
- CPR/automatic external defibrillator/Choking training: Training and certification is available for participants14-years of age and older. This course also has a fee of $26 and includes lunch.
- Baby Shower: This training offers new mothers guidance in caring for an infant including CPR and choking awareness.
- CPR for K-12: The hospital has partnered with Union County school nurses to help certify staff and students for just the $2 cost of the certification card per participant; the hospital bears the expense of the training.
- Healthy Kids Club: This program brings nutrition and fitness programs to our schools.

Breathe Easy
- Asthma screening: This vital program brings a respiratory technician to supervise screening of school age children.

Summer Camps
- Camp Eagle’s Nest: A fun retreat in Townsend, Tenn., this camp is home for patients from the hospital’s Hematology/Oncology clinic for one week.
- Donald M. Gally Camp is a day camp for children with special needs ranging from 5-14 years of age.
- Camp Cure provides a safe and fun environment for children ages 5-12 with diabetes.

Community Involvement
- Event sponsorships and participation
- Chamber memberships

Miller shared that all of these programs are grant funded. She handed out goodie bags with helpful information and a medicine log. For more information, you can reach her at rmiller@etch.com.

The Union County Business and Professional Association meets every second Tuesday at Hardees in Maynardville. Meetings are open to the public, and can be viewed on HistoricUnionCounty.com.