The money came at a time when funding for the Lifetime Smiles program had changed, and United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries Executive Director Penney Schwab was trying to keep the program going.

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Holly Knoll, OB shift supervisor, gives Vanessa Lopez board books for her newborn, Heriberto Acevedo, on Tuesday at St. Catherine Hospital. The books are provided through the Born to Read program operated by Smart Start, an organization that seeks to ensure all children birth to age 5 are healthy and enter school ready to succeed. Heriberto was born Monday, weighing 8 pounds, 1.4 ounces and 20 inches long.

The oral health and prevention screening program provides, among other services, an opportunity for dental education and prevention of disease and other oral health problems through targeting schools, day cares and other places children might be.

The funding came from Smart Start of Southwest Kansas, an organization that exists to ensure all children birth to age 5 are healthy and enter school ready to succeed.

Among the other agencies, organizations and programs it serves, Smart Start also provides funds for UMAM's immunization program. Schwab said the funding and work Smart Start provides to children birth to 5 is vital for the future health of the communities it serves, and keeps funding in Finney County and southwest Kansas.

Smart Start serves 13 counties: Finney, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita. The organization is funded through matching grants from the Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund and Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services, as well as support from individuals and businesses. It also receives $4,000 in funding from the United Way of Finney County, which helps provide the 20 percent match needed for the $569,228 grant funding Smart Start.

The organization also partners with existing agencies currently providing services for children and families -- the funding to the programs, agencies and counties Smart Start serves is flexible in order to meet the individual needs of each community, according to the organization. It provides services and funding in three target areas: learning opportunities, quality child care and community support services.

Smart Start provides funding for Reach Out & Read and Born to Read literacy programs, as well as providing preschool enhancement grants to increase quality and services; scholarships for early childhood teachers to attend conferences and various training opportunities and to buy classroom resources and materials; enhancement grants for child care providers and centers; and grants for public libraries to increase services and resources for those birth to 5.

But the funding isn't limited to that, said Smart Start Director Rebecca Clancy.

"It's not all in one box," she said of the services and programs Smart Start helps fund and support.

Clancy said Smart Start doesn't necessarily "reinvent the wheel" but aids existing programs and services.

Born to Read, in its first year with Smart Start of Southwest Kansas, is one of many programs the organization didn't create but has been able to bring to southwest Kansas. The idea of the program is that every newborn goes home with books.

As of Monday, 614 babies had received board books through Smart Start of Southwest Kansas' Born to Read program for 2007. The program is free to hospitals, which in return for the books being provided must report back how many babies have received the books.

GeoReta Jones, director for Head Start in southwest Kansas, said Smart Start provides a community representative for Head Start's policy council, as well as funding in various ways for the organization, including grants for playground equipment at Head Start sites. She said the funding also aids in the 25 percent match in way of community services or funding Head Start must have because it's a federally funded program.

The United Way's goal is to raise $550,000 before the drive ends Nov. 1. Smart Start also receives funding from the United Way of Seward County.

The United Way assists the following agencies: Finney County Retired & Volunteer Program Inc.; Garden City Family YMCA; Russell Child Development Center; Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association; United Methodist Mexican American Ministries Clinic; United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney County; Community Day Care; Girl Scouts of Tumbleweed Council; Kansas Children's Service League Head Start; Santa Fe Trail Council Boy Scouts; Youthscape; American Red Cross; Catholic Social Service; Emmaus House; Family Crisis Services Inc.; Spirit of the Plains, CASA Inc.; The Salvation Army; and Meals on Wheels.