The Friends is a child advocacy, community outre ach and educational organization whose mission is to improve the health, safety, and welfare of children and families. The next Bright Beginnings Training Institute will be held in January 1997. The Buddies program both pairs patients one-on one with student volunteers, and throws separate parties for school age and adolescent patients around the holidays. This program is part of the Student National Medical Association program's nationwide effort ot target high school students interested in health care issues r elevant to their communities. This program also raises money to provide a scholarship, for selected students, fo r their college expenses.
Topics range from molecular biology to history of medicine to zoology.
The HOPE program brings together volunteers from the medical, epidemiology and public health, and nursing schools to provide both th e educational programs and to staff the weekly clinics. This program consists of several small workshops that are designed to introduce 5th graders to the medical center and to hopefully spark their interest in medicine and science. St udents are given a brief introduction and shown a video tape about the hospital and its' employees. The students are then divided into small groups and rotated through workshops on physical diagnosis, cardiology, radiology and microbiology. In the small groups the 5th graders make stethoscopes so they can listen to their hearts, and learn to read simple x-rays, such as those of a swallowed thermometer or broken bones.