NEWS RELEASE – March 7, 2024
April 1, 2024 — ARH Dr. Karen Gooslin and April Prater, APRN, share a love of reading and a belief in helping their community. Recently, they found a way to combine those passions.
While tidying up during spring cleaning, Gooslin and her daughter found themselves with a surplus of books. This sparked the brilliant idea of setting up a Sharing Library at the ARH Wayland Family Care location, allowing them to share their love of books with others.
Reading has always been part of Gooslin and Prater’s routines. Gooslin says her parents and older sister read to her when she was little. Prater said, “My mom always read to me, I read to my kids and have started a tradition of reading to my granddaughter Ava.”
Gooslin comments, “I have wonderful memories of spending my summers laying on a float in our pool reading.” Her favorites? “The Berenstain Bears when I was little. I like to read anything by Beatrice Small, romance or murder mystery.”
Prater also remembers summers spent reading books while lying on the beach. “When I was little, Dr. Seuss was my favorite and is now Ava’s favorite book. Now, I read research articles, and if it’s a book, it’s mostly children’s books. My time is limited these days, so I choose to read to Ava.”
Both women were taught from a young age that giving to your community is important. They express this value through donations of clothing, toys, and more. It was only natural for these two to be so enthusiastic about donating and sharing books with their community.
Gooslin says, “Patients love it. They pick up a book and read while waiting, and then get involved and take it home, and bring it back next visit. I want people (adults and kids)to enjoy reading again.”
Prater wants to see more people reading again, away from screens.
Gooslin agrees saying, “With technology, people are losing the art of a good book in their hands and folding the pages to mark where you stopped. I have patients that can’t read or struggle to read. I hope this sparks the desire to learn to read or sparks kids to learn to use their imagination more.”
If you’d like to support Gooslin and Prater and the ARH Wayland Family Care Sharing Library, you can contribute books.
April Prater, APRN, Dr. Karen Gooslin, and Reece Patton (Dr. Gooslin’s daughter)
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Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) is a not-for-profit health system operating 14 hospitals in Barbourville, Hazard, Harlan, Hyden, Martin, McDowell, Middlesboro, Paintsville, Prestonsburg, West Liberty, Whitesburg, and South Williamson in Kentucky and Beckley and Hinton in West Virginia, as well as multi-specialty physician practices, home health agencies, home medical equipment stores, retail pharmacies, and medical spas. ARH employs approximately 6,700 people with an annual payroll and benefits of $474 million generated into our local economies. ARH also has a network of more than 1,300 providers on staff across its multi-state system. ARH is the largest provider of care, the single largest employer in southeastern Kentucky, and the third-largest private employer in southern West Virginia.