For the Rapids City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – Members of the Wood County Association for Home and Community Education (HCE) are helping to promote a lifelong love of reading for local children.

Wood County HCE members play an important role in the Wisconsin Bookworms™ program, which provides free books to children in the Wood County Headstart program in an effort to promote literacy. HCE volunteers read to preschool children and supply activities the family can participate in at home that relate to the books their child is receiving.

The Alliant Energy Foundation recently provided a $2,000 grant to support the Wood County Wisconsin Bookworms program. These funds are used to purchase sets of books for the children in the program.

Currently, Wisconsin Bookworms reaches more than 5,200 children statewide and has distributed 620,000 books to children.

To learn more about the Wisconsin Bookworms program, visit http://www.wahceinc.org/bookwormsindex.html.

For more information on Wood County Home and Communication Education, call the Wood County UW-Extension office at 715-421-8437 or email [email protected].