Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation Donates $7,500 to San Luis Valley American Red Cross to Assist Residents Affected by Water Contamination Crisis

DENVER, Mar. 27 /PRNewswire/ --

DENVER, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation announced today that it has made a $7,500 grant to the San Luis Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross to assist women in the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program obtain baby bottles, formula and water, and to aid volunteers who are distributing water to the citizens of the San Luis Valley who have been affected by the recent Salmonella water contamination.

"One of the things Coloradans have come to expect and enjoy is access to clean, uncontaminated water," said John Martie, President, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado. "The residents of the San Luis Valley are now dealing with the fact that their public water supply is tainted and are cut off from its use. This situation presents a whole host of personal and public health issues that locals are dealing with on a daily basis. It's our hope that the Foundation grant will help residents during a time of need and make the next few weeks a little easier for them."

"On behalf of the San Luis Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, I want to thank the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation for this generous donation," said Lisa Werts, Chapter Manager. "With donations like this we can continue helping the people of Alamosa and the San Luis Valley. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a great corporate neighbor."

About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation

Through charitable grant making, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation promotes Anthem's inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to reduce the number of uninsured as well as organizations and nonprofit charities that promote the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation is an affiliate of the WellPoint Foundation. To learn more about the WellPoint Foundation please visit www.wellpointfoundation.org

About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's mission is to improve the lives of the people it serves. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado is a subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc. . WellPoint, Inc. is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through HealthLink and UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.