Helping teens | Letter
Published 11:40 am Monday, November 24, 2014
This is the fifth “Thanksgiving Day” that the Island Reproductive Health Initiative (IRHI) has been helping teens and young adults on Orcas to protect themselves from problems related to unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
So on this day, we wish to thank all of our community donors and supporters. The biggest part of what IRHI does is to pay for reproductive and sexual health care and medication, at all Orcas medical clinics, for those who cannot afford it. Education is the other part of what IRHI does. We believe that the ability to be safe and sexually healthy, depends so very much on each young person’s knowledge and awareness about this area of their lives.
On behalf of our IRHI patients, we give thanks to generous individuals on Orcas who provide almost all of our funding. We are also thankful for our third $1,000 grant from Orcas LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Bisexual). We thank Doe Bay Resort and Cafe for donating a portion of their March Pizza Night proceeds to IRHI. And we thank the Orcas Island Community Foundation for administering the OICF/IRHI Fund.
On behalf students who are more knowledgable, we thank the Orcas Island School District’s Board of Directors, administration and teachers for their support of IRHI. Business owners who help us promote safe and healthy sexual behavior are: Sequel, The Kitchen, Doe Bay Cafe, Fashion Fairy, Studio Mireau.
Finally, thanks to Colleen Armstrong Smith, editor of the Islands’ Sounder, for her articles (see: “Why it’s important to talk to kids about sex”, April 30, 2014).
Jean Henigson for IRHI
