Employees Can Sponsor Children in Need During Annual Circle of Love

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 19, 2014) — UK HealthCare employees, volunteers and departmental groups can brighten the holidays for families in need by fulfilling a child's wish list through the Circle of Love program.

Starting Nov. 19, UK HealthCare volunteers will distribute names and wish lists of individual children or entire families to UK HealthCare employees and departments. Using the wish list as their guide, individual sponsors will purchase two to four gifts for a child. UK HealthCare departments or groups supporting entire families are asked to purchase gifts for every child younger than 18.

Organized by the UK HealthCare Volunteer Office, Circle of Love will support 800 children from eight Central Kentucky counties and two Fayette County schools this year. The program also fulfills wish lists for children of families staying at Kentucky Children's Hospital through the holidays.

UK HealthCare employees and departmental groups interested in sponsoring a child or a family should stop at an information table at one of several UK HealthCare locations:

·         Kentucky Clinic near the Wildcat Café

·         Good Samaritan Hospital at the cafeteria entrance

·         UK Chandler Hospital Pavilion H near the gift shop

·         Fountain Court facility

·         Sterlington Road facility

Volunteers will be distributing wish lists at information tables from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21, Nov. 24 to 26 and Dec. 1 to 5. Gifts for families will be collected on Dec. 8 and 9, with the drop-off location at Pavilion H North Lobby in the UK Chandler Hospital. All gifts will be loaded onto school buses at the entrance of Pavilion A at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 12.

Monetary donations are also accepted through the UK HealthCare Volunteer Office. For more information, contact Sara Miller at (859) 323-4117.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu