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combination of government grants and pri- vate donations, the latter prompted by events like last week's Giving Sarasota a Healthy Start luncheon, the first of its kind for the Sarasota Healthy Start. Sarasota City Commissioner Suzanne Atwell, who was MC of the event, proclaimed April 25 Giving Sarasota a Healthy Start Day and spoke about her time serving as the president of her local La Leche League when she was a new mom. She called women Sarasota's "most disadvantaged" population and argued that a "healthy citizenry" leads to a healthy democracy and good government. Former Mayor Kelly Kirschner — a longtime supporter of the organization — also took the podium, introducing the keynote speaker: Jack Levine, the founder of Tallahassee's 4Generations Institute. Kirschner talked about the $1 million-plus hospital bill he and his wife racked up when their first child was born three months premature. He estimated that just treating the "symptoms" of unhealthy birth outcomes costs Sarasota County more than $60 million each year. The luncheon also offered an opportunity to meet Healthy Start's new executive director, Shon Ewens, who took over early this year after the nonprofit's longtime leader, Jennifer Highland, announced her retirement. Ewens previously worked for the Literacy Council of Sarasota, whose offices are located near Healthy Start's in the sprawling 17th Street Glasser Schoenbaum Human Services Center. That proximity allowed Ewens to learn about Healthy Start's mission and observe its work. "It's something that I wanted to be involved in; it's something I believe in," Ewens told The Sarasota News Leader after the luncheon. "It's where I'm supposed to be." Ewens' primary objective in her first years is to get the word out. "I just don't think the community really knows who and what we are," she said. "My main goal as the execu- tive director is to let every single person in Sarasota County know who we are, what we are and what we do." Her application came at a providential time: She interviewed for the Healthy Start job just two weeks after giving birth to her third child. "I actually had to leave my interview in the middle because I was still breastfeeding," Ewens said with a laugh. "My husband was in the car with the baby." % Don't have your own subscription to The Sarasota News Leader? Subscribe for FREE and receive a weekly notification when the latest issue is available online. FREE SUBSCRIPTION Sarasota News Leader May 2, 2014 Page 65