Early Childhood Intervention celebrates its years of service in Burnet County
Briana Rivera, 1, receives services from the local Early Childhood Intervention program in Burnet County. She seems to like their ‘Books for Babies’ program.
MARBLE FALLS — It’s because of children such as Briana Rivera the Bluebonnet Trails Early Childhood Intervention PRIDE program strives to aid those who need help the most.
And the infant will be one of the many at-risk children who owe much to the program, all of them invited to the “Come home for Christmas” reunion party Dec. 15 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive.
The program partners with families to help children from birth to age 3 with developmental delays to grow, learn and stay healthy, officials said. Program administrators work with relatives in a family-based environment to help them improve, modify and adapt their surroundings in way that works best for the child.
“This is not a cookie-cutter program. It is designed to be whatever the family needs,” said Cathy Lemlyn, the family service coordinator and office manager at ECI for several years. “If a family needs anything, we can provide it. We can go anywhere — to a family’s home, a relative’s home or even a day care center.”
Briana’s family said the Burnet County ECI has helped them. The infant, a happy, sweet, loving child according to relatives, was born with a large tumor on the left side of her neck. The tumor grew at such a rapid pace, it damaged her esophagus and impaired her ability to eat normally.
Rivera was referred to the Burnet County ECI one year ago, and her mother says the program’s assistance has had a tremendous impact on the family.
“Briana’s tumor caused her airway to become crooked. She had surgery one week after she was born and was put on a tracheal tube,” mother Lucia Martinez said. “ECI has helped us in so many ways. They have given us so much information, physically helped make her muscles strong and they even worked with us to get a wheelchair for her through Medicaid.”
ECI receives referrals from doctors, hospitals, state Child Protective Services or even the family of a child needing assistance, officials said.
Some of the services range from physical or occupational therapy, nutrition, hearing and vision specialists, speech therapy, counseling or home health. Lemlyn says the program serves 30 children, and the admission process begins with a screening and evaluation. It takes about 45 days to complete admission to the program.
One focus of the group is to promote their “Books for Babies” program. Lemlyn started the program two years ago and would like to see it grow.
“We like to give a book to every child we come in contact with, whether they are in the ECI program or not. We want books in every home to increase and encourage their interaction,” Lemlyn said. “Some of these kids don’t even have books, puzzles or anything, but we would really like to see this take off.”
There isn’t a huge budget to support the initiative, but ECI has received “generous” donations over the years from the Church at Horseshoe Bay, H-E-B and the SERTOMA Club, the coordinator said.
“We are hoping to have a donation box at our Christmas reunion to encourage anyone willing to give new or gently used books or monetary donations. What we don’t have in the way of funds to buy books, the staff and I will go out and purchase ourselves,” Lemlyn said. “A lot of people don’t realize what we can do with a small amount of money. For $750, we could keep the ‘Books for Babies’ program going all year.”
ECI also holds a graduation for the children when they are 3 and are ready to exit ECI. They are given a birthday bag to celebrate this milestone.
The “Come Home for Christmas” reunion is open to all present and past program recipients. The event will include pictures with Santa, art activities and refreshments.
For more information, contact ECI at (830) 693-3790. The office is at 4606 Innovation Loop, Suite E.
byoung@thepicayune.com
Courtesy photo