A terrific way to build name recognition for your private practice is to find a way to engage with your community. Community service and charitable works are a no-brainer for those of us in private practice. Check out this email that was posted on one of the online discussion lists that I frequent. Elementary school counselor, Scott Ertl, from Winston Salem, North Carolina wrote this:
Kids Read and Ride is
a free program for schools to collect unwanted exercise bikes from around town for students to ride while reading fun magazines and books. Since many Goodwill and Salvation Army stores don’t accept exercise bikes as donations due to liability concerns, it is very easy to find willing donors around town. Also, Craigslist.org and Freecycle.org will allow you to post free listings requests for exercise bike donations. We received very few donations from parents of our students at school, but a total of 41 from around our community!
We filled an empty classroom at our school with 30 exercise bikes so teachers could sign-up for 15-minute periods throughout the day and every student could ride their own bike. Some teachers sign-up to bring their class right after they go to the media center, while other teachers sign-up as a weekly “bonus recess” period.
We also collected an additional 11 exercise bikes to put in 11 different classroom corners for students to read and ride when they completed their classwork, as an incentive for doing something special, or when a student simply needed to release some extra energy.
Our school data is posted on the website from last year and we showed some significant correlations with positive reading comprehension scores and increased interest in reading. Overall, students LOVE the extra opportunities to become more active learners.
The downside is that it takes time to collect all the exercise bikes since most of the people willing to donate are not not able to bring the exercise bikes to the school. Also, most schools don’t have the luxury of an empty classroom. If they do, the first 2-3 times a class comes to the room, the students are usually overwhelmed with excitement and they want to ride every single bike. However, they can be taught to calm down and they can learn to read and ride quietly.
You can view photos and videos from press coverage, read FAQ’s about the program, download a free template for a press release and flyer to start your own Read and Ride program and even join us on Twitter or Facebook.
Our website is: www.KidsReadAndRide.com <http://www.kidsreadandride.com/>
Again, everything is 100% free and reproducible. Good luck with this “novel” program!”
There is no reason you can’t head up a similar program like this in your community, too! And, if you are already volunteering your time in your community, drop us a note and let us know what you’re doing and how you are leveraging this for your practice!
Please share your thoughts!