Ouachita Stories

The Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community at Ouachita Baptist University recently donated more than 150 new books to Ascent Children’s Health Services in Arkadelphia to fulfill a need for books for preschool children enrolled there.

“As a university, we are committed to serving our community and making it better,” said Ian Cosh, Ouachita’s assistant to the president for community development and director of the Elrod Center. “We believe in being a good neighbor and reaching out to meet the needs of the children in our community through this partnership with Ascent. We are glad to be able to partner with Ascent in meeting this particular need.”

Jan Bass, coordinator of public school initiatives, and Diane Runyan, administrative assistant at the Elrod Center, delivered the books to Brianna Smith, Ascent’s early childhood coordinator. Justin Huett serves as director of Ascent.

“It is such a pleasure to deliver books to Ascent and see the eager acceptance of books by children who really appreciate having a book of their own to take home,” Bass said. “The majority of the books were board books appropriate for babies and young children. There were also study paperback books for older preschoolers. All the books were from Scholastic.”

Bass noted that funding through the Elrod Center has made it possible for the center to provide books to Ascent for the past six years.

“Ascent Children’s Health Services would like to thank the Elrod Center for providing books for our children,” Smith said. “It was amazing to see the looks on each child’s face when they realized they could pick their own book and bring it home with them!

“Not only did we get enough books for each child in our facility but there are plenty more for each room to have extras,” Smith added. “This was a wonderful gift and our children loved the surprise!”

Ouachita Baptist University established the Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community in 1997 to encourage, coordinate and facilitate public service, volunteerism and community engagement throughout the state and region. For more information about the programs of the Elrod Center, call 870-245-5320.