Dr. Jean Barton of Sedona has been selected as the 2019 First Things First Yavapai Region Champion for Young Children.
The award is given to local champions who actively volunteer their time to raise public awareness of the importance of early childhood development and health. Champions spend a significant amount of time volunteering with FTF and building public awareness about the importance of early childhood issues. Barton was recently honored at a FTF Yavapai Regional Partnership Council meeting.
Barton, with the help of all the Rotary Clubs in the Verde Valley, led the expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library from Sedona and Rimrock to the entire Verde Valley region, including Camp Verde and Cottonwood.
The Verde Valley Imagination Library, which is managed by volunteers, sends a high quality, age-appropriate book every month to the homes of more than 1,800 children from birth to age 5. Barton also worked to establish a partnership agreement so that the family of every baby born at Northern Arizona Healthcare’s Verde Valley Medical Center has the opportunity to enroll their newborns in the program. They also receive the first book, and parents are told about the importance of reading to babies every day because babies are born learning.
“A child’s experiences between birth and age 5 are the foundation for their future life,” Barton, who is a retired educator and pediatrician said. “Everyone talks about the problems facing K-12 education when we should be talking about birth-12 education. We know that interactive talking, playing and reading starting in infancy wires the brain for language and future literacy.”
Barton shares how talking, singing and reading to children starting from infancy makes a lifelong difference in learning whenever she speaks to parents or organizations about the importance of early childhood development. Raising awareness is something everyone can do, she said.
“Spread the message that investing in children starting at birth will help prevent the problems seen in school kids, teens and adults,” Barton said. “The societal and financial savings are enormous.” First Things First is a voter-created, statewide organization that funds early education and health programs to help kids be successful once they enter kindergarten. Decisions about how those funds are spent are made by local councils staffed by community volunteers. To learn more, visit FirstThingsFirst.org.
