Feeding the Frontlines: A Special Treat for St. Luke’s Nurses

Local business leader Mike Grabarits visited St. Luke’s University Hospital Bethlehem Campus recently with a special thank you for some deserving health care heroes – a check for $20,000 to support Feeding the Frontlines, a special initiative that provides care givers with gift certificates to local restaurants.

“My colleagues and I wanted to acknowledge the professionalism and expertise of the St. Luke’s team and help our local restaurants too, so we partnered with PBS-WLVT to create a virtual literacy conference for educators,” remarked Grabarits, whose company, Step By Step Learning®, trains teachers on the latest science to teaching reading. In May, Grabarits and the Step By Step Learning® team created STRAIGHT TALK by the Experts®, the largest Virtual Literacy Conference in the country into a fundraiser benefiting first responders and local businesses.

“We’re so grateful for the thousands of people like Mike and PBS-WLVT who have stepped forward to help St. Luke’s during this challenging time,” remarked Patrick Bower, St. Luke’s vice president for development and external affairs.

“In addition to donating meals and 800,000 items of personal protective equipment, philanthropy has helped power innovation, including new COVID-19 treatment protocols, testing systems and advanced technology that has saved lives.”

Recently, St. Luke’s celebrated the discharge of over 1,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, who are now at home with their families.

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Media Contact:

Jessica Peluso, Chief of Staff, Step By Step Learning® Media, 412-999-2555, JessicaP@sbsl.org

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About Step By Step Learning®

Step By Step Learning® partners with School Districts to implement a comprehensive research and evidence-based approach to literacy that includes assessment, effective classroom instruction techniques, collaborative problem-solving and research-supported intervention models to ensure all students succeed in reading. Through a professional development model that includes ongoing coaching and mentoring support, Step By Step Learning® crafts a unique implementation strategy for each local district with the mission of dramatically improving academic achievement for all students.

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke's created the Lehigh Valley's first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows. St. Luke's is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health's 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke's hospitals. St. Luke's University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke's has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN's information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke's is also recognized as one of the state's lowest cost providers.