Arkansas Children’s Announces Gifts Totaling $1.5 Million to Support Dental Outreach Programs and the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

September 23, 2019

Gifts from Valero and Stuart Cobb support bold promise to deliver unprecedented child health in Arkansas.

(Little Rock, Ark.) September 23, 2019 – Arkansas Children’s continues its statewide public launch of the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow, a bold $250 million campaign designed to support the promise of unprecedented child health. Defined and delivered.

Valero’s $1 million gift and Arkansas Children’s longtime supporter Stuart Cobb’s $500,000 gift will both support statewide dental outreach programs at Arkansas Children’s.

“These investments from leading advocates are key to advancing child health,” said Fred Scarborough, chief development officer for Arkansas Children’s and president of Arkansas Children’s Foundation. “We are so grateful to Valero as a leading corporate citizen and to Stuart as a committed champion for children.”

The Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach Program includes mobile dental clinics and the school-based Dental Sealant Program.

Arkansas Children’s Mobile Dental Clinics include four state-of-the-art vans providing dental services to patients across the state through five regional hubs. The vans will serve the following regional areas: Central, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast and Northeast. Each regional location will collaborate with local dentists and employ customized solutions to the communities’ needs.

These five locations will provide:

Dental Sealant Program and “teACHout” education, which provide children with preventive dental sealants and oral health education
Mobile Dental Clinic to provide preventive and restorative dental care to children at schools within 50 miles of each regional hub
Regional program coordinator to plan and implement the dental sealant and mobile dental programs to provide health education to students in school and community-based settings
Support from rural outreach coordinators to foster relationships and build partnerships in order to introduce programs to new communities

The school-based Dental Sealant Program consists of a team who provides statewide oral health and preventative care and collaborates with local dental providers to reach more than 60 schools and 8,000 students each year in Arkansas. The Dental Sealant Program includes an educational component, “teACHout,” which encourages healthy oral habits such as brushing and flossing.

Since 2009, the Dental Outreach Program has provided 12,500 dental exams through mobile dental clinics, screened 31,400 children and provided fluoride applications and applied 73,000 dental sealants through the Dental Sealant Program. Throughout the last decade, supporters like Delta Dental, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma and Walmart have invested in Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach Program and provided dental support services around the state.

Philanthropic Support

Valero pledged $1 million to the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow to expand dental outreach programs. With more than 170 Valero locations in Arkansas, Valero is committed to improving child health in Arkansas.

“Valero is proud to partner with Arkansas Children’s oral health outreach programs to provide a better quality of life for children in the region,” said Eric Fisher, Valero vice of president wholesale marketing & international commercial operations. “By providing access to preventative dental care and oral health education, Valero is delivering a healthier tomorrow for the children of Arkansas.”

Arkansas Children’s Foundation Board Member Stuart Cobb has given $500,000 to Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach program. This investment will support capital needs to provide oral healthcare across Arkansas.

“As a parent we all want the very best care available for our children,” said Cobb. “The Dental Outreach program at Arkansas Children’s makes a vital impact for children around the state. I cannot think of a better way to champion child health in Arkansas.”

A life-long member of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) Auxiliary, Cobb served as an ACH Auxiliary president from 1990‒1991. The ACH Auxiliary is an organization serving ACH patients and families through fundraising and service projects.

Since 2015, the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow has secured more than $200 million in gifts towards a $250 million investment to deliver on our promise of unprecedented child health for children in Arkansas.

Arkansas Children’s Foundation board chair, Charlie Whiteside and his wife Cappy are the 2019 chairs for The Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow.

Arkansas Children’s invites you to be a champion for children in our state and make a gift to support statewide initiatives. Your generous support helps deliver on the promise of a healthier tomorrow for the children of Arkansas. Join us and make your gift today at www.archildrens.org/giving or by calling 888-880-7491.

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

By most national measures, Arkansas is one of the least healthy states ranking 40 out of 50 states in child health and well-being. Arkansas Children’s envisions a healthier tomorrow for all 710,000 children in Arkansas—for both our patients and the children who will never walk through the doors of Arkansas Children’s.

Since 2015, The Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow has secured more than $200 million in gifts towards a $250 million goal:

In 2015, Arkansas Children’s invested in two new 76-D Sikorsky Angel One Helicopters with the capabilities to reach a child anywhere in the state in 55 minutes. Since 1978, the Angel One Transport team has transported the most critically ill and injured patients to Arkansas Children’s and established a statewide network of care for children in Arkansas.
Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach programs are providing care to children across the state. Four, full-service mobile dental vans serve children in need of root canals, cavity fillings, extractions and crowns. School-based programs provide oral health education, dental sealants and screenings to more than 8,000 students annually. To date, the mobile dental vans and the dental sealant program have provided $13 million in preventive oral health services for children since 2009.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital has the state’s only level IV NICU. In 2016, ACH announced the creation of a Nursery Alliance to support hospitals around the state to provide children the care they need close to home. Since the program’s inception, the nursery alliance has established partnerships with Conway Regional in Conway, CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs, Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado and Ashley County Medical in Crossett.
In 2016, Arkansas Children’s established The David M. Clark Center for Safe and Healthy Children, a place dedicated to the care and treatment of neglected and abused children and their families. The Center is a single, safe place for children to receive medical, psychological and social health services and provides support by providing outpatient medical evaluations for children Rice Medical Clinic, Family Treatment Program and Team for Children at Risk.
In 2017, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Southwest Little Rock Clinic opened. Staffed with bilingual physicians and nurses, the clinic provides general pediatric and preventative care to families in the region. Arkansas Children’s Hospital clinics in Jonesboro and West Little Rock also provide primary care to children in the state.
In 2018 Arkansas Children’s Northwest became one of the nation’s newest children’s hospitals. Located in Springdale, Arkansas Children’s Northwest provides more than 20 subspecialty areas and a general pediatric clinic. In 2015, Arkansas Children’s announced the expansion of services in Northwest Arkansas to establish a 336,000 square feet hospital, Arkansas Children’s Northwest, located in Springdale. More than 14,000 gifts were made and $81 million in philanthropy supported the building of ACNW.

About Arkansas Children’s

Arkansas Children's, Inc. is the only healthcare system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 710,000 children, giving the organization a unique ability to shape the landscape of pediatric care in Arkansas and transform the health of children throughout the region. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons; and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Additionally, ACH is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in five pediatric subspecialties (2019-2020): Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the Northwest Arkansas region, opened in Springdale in early 2018. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and Northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can fundamentally transform the health of children in Arkansas and beyond. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

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