The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) WIC (Women, Infants, Children) and SEARHC Southeast Alaska Child Passenger Safety programs are teaming up to host the “Package Your Child in Love” event. This event takes place from 1-4 p.m. on Friday, March 23, at the SEARHC WIC Office, 3245 Hospital Drive (on the first floor of the SEARHC Dental-Behavioral Health Building).

The SEARHC WIC Program in Juneau recently received about 50 Aprica strollers (valued at approximately $200) from the State of Alaska WIC Program, and they will be given away to current SEARHC WIC clients who have a child age 3 or younger. There is a limit of one stroller per family. The strollers will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis, and WIC clients must be present from 1-4 p.m. on March 23 to pick up their strollers. The SEARHC WIC Program will not hold strollers, deliver strollers or ship them to outlying communities.

“SEARHC WIC is committed to providing healthy food and nutrition education to clients,” SEARHC WIC Program Coordinator Lisa Fenn, MS, RD, LD, said. “With the generous donation of the strollers and teaming up with the Child Passenger Safety Program for this event, we are now able to help with the safety of the children as well.”

In addition to the stroller giveaway, representatives from the SEARHC Southeast Alaska Child Passenger Safety Program will be available to provide free car seat check-ups for those WIC clients who want to make sure they have the proper-fitting seat for their car model and child. State law requires children through age 8 (who are less than 4 feet, 9 inches tall or weigh less than 65 pounds) to sit in an approved child passenger seat or booster seat when riding in an automobile.

Fitting a child’s car seat is difficult because there is wide variety of car seat designs and motor vehicle types, and children come in all sizes, shapes and behaviors. It’s no wonder that only 17 percent of the more than 1,500 car seats in Alaska checked by certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians (from October 2007 to September 2008) were properly installed. An improperly fitting child car seat significantly raises the risk of injury or death for a child, and motor vehicle crashes account for 42 percent of all unintentional childhood injury-related deaths.

For more information about the stroller giveaway for SEARHC WIC clients, contact the SEARHC WIC Program at 463-4099. For more information about child car seat fitting and how to schedule a fitting with SEARHC in Juneau, contact Health Advocate Lorena Gray of the SEARHC Southeast Alaska Child Passenger Safety Program at 364-4456 or lorena.gray@searhc.org. To learn more about the importance of a properly fitting child car seat, go tohttps://www.carseatsak.org/.