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Cindy Kleeman watches as Salina Police Chief, Brad Craig, explains the importance of child car seat safety.

TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Nation is working to provide safer car rides for kids. The Cherokee Nation purchased 30 car seats with help from a grant from the March of Dimes. Each Cherokee Nation health clinic received four car seats to give to four lucky patients.

“We made submission for this grant from the March of Dines to start a ‘Healthy Beginnings’ program,” said Regina Christie-Bell, Cherokee Nation Patient Benefit Advocate Advisor. “With the money we received from the March of Dimes we were able to purchase 30 car seats which were then given away in random drawing to parents who had applied for Sooner Care Services at one of our six clinics.”

“Each clinic has a patient benefit advocate (PBA) whose primary purpose is to assist patients in locating services, which will help the patient to maximize available services and secondly, assist the patients in finding third party resources to help to generate revenues for our clinics,” Christie-Bell said. “This is where Sooner Care comes into play.”

“I think this is a great program,” said Pryor resident and car seat winner Cynthia Kleeman. “Cherokee Nation helped me to learn about Sooner Care which helped immensely since I did not have any other form of insurance at the time. The fact that I won a car seat was even better since I have never won anything before and this is my first child.”

Sooner Care is a health benefit offered to qualified Oklahomans through the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

“Cherokee Nation Health Services hopes that through this grant and the implementation of this program we can work to educate parents on the importance of insuring their children, preventative health care services and availability and the overall safety of using car seats to protect both babies and children,” Christie-Bell said.

For more information on the Oklahoma SoonerCare Program, please your local Cherokee Nation clinic.

Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Director of Communications Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2210) Fax: 918-458-5580 E-mail: Communications@cherokee.org Larry Daugherty, Advertising Manager Cherokee Nation - Public Affairs Phone 918-456-0671 (Ex.2324) E-mail: ldaugherty@cherokee.org

Bradley D. Peak, Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Specialist Phone: 918-456-0671 (ex.2843) E-mail: bpeak@cherokee.org Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma Attn: (Department Name) P.O. Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465 Telephone: 918-456-0671 (Toll Free OK) 1-800-256-0671