Mary Alford, The News-Enterprise
Do you have any old crutches or knee braces laying around?
The Hardin Memorial Health Therapy and Sports Medicine team wants to take them off your hands through its Crutches for Kids campaign.
The staff is collecting gently used medical items to benefit area schools including crutches; ankle, knee or wrist braces; walking boots; and cold therapy units such as GameReady, Polarcare, Cryo-cuff or DeRoyal brand products.
Carol George, HMH supervisor of sports medicine, said the drive is new and will be ongoing. George said the idea was generated by a staff member.
“We finally were able to put it together and get it started,” she said.
The donated medical items will be used by the HMH Sports Medicine team to assist in the care of area student athletes.
George said the Sports Medicine team is a staff of athletic trainers, who provide health care for six area high schools — Central Hardin, Elizabethtown, John Hardin, LaRue County, Meade County and North Hardin. She said they are able to see first-hand the injuries student athletes endure and what supplies are needed.
“We’re out there on the front lines dealing with hundreds of student athletes in school games (and) tournaments, with only so many supplies at our disposal,” George said.
She said the staff sometimes sends equipment home with athletes and visiting teams, limiting its supplies further.
George said the medical supplies would be a huge benefit to their program to utilize for area athletes.
“We just welcome anything for the benefit of our area athletes,” she said. “Our program is a service to the community and we want this to help better prepare to care for athletes coming in.”
Items can be dropped at HMH Therapy and Sports Medicine locations across the region. Offices are at 1111 Ring Road, Elizabethtown; 75 Nature Trail, Radcliff; and 100 Commerce Drive, Brandenburg.
For information or to arrange a drop-off, contact an HMH certified athletic trainer at 270-737-7529.
