CASPER, Wyo. — Raising Readers held a celebration in Casper, on January 21, to mark the success of the early literacy program’s first two years in Wyoming. The event also featured the presentation of a new $100,000 infusion of funding from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning’s Pacific Power Fund.

The celebration included an update on the Raising Readers program by Wyoming program coordinator Jolene Olson; check presentation to Jim DeLozier of the Wyoming Department of Family Services by PacifiCorp Foundation Director Isaac Regenstreif and Pacific Power Regional Community Manager Leslie Blythe; comments by Natrona County Library Director Bill Nelson; reading tips from Hayley Robertson, a licensed speech language pathologist; and reading with children by local television news anchor Joey Parker from KCWY Channel 13. 

The event also included parent resource tables with information from Natrona County Library, Early Head Start, Child Development Center, Parent Education Network, Literacy Volunteers of Casper and Raising Readers. 

Raising Readers in Wyoming encourages parents to read to their young children by providing new books as part of their well-child health care visits. The goals of the program are to improve child health, increase the number of times a parent reads to their children per week, and support families as they prepare their children to enter kindergarten. More than 11,000 books have been provided to more than 4,000 families in Wyoming since the program was first introduced in December 2002.

Raising Readers in Wyoming is made possible through a $300,000, three-year grant from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, the philanthropic arm of Pacific Power. The Foundation is working to improve early childhood literacy rates in communities served by Pacific Power and Utah Power. This is the third year of the program, which aspires to expand to every Wyoming County and reach 4,900 children. Raising Readers in Wyoming is administered by Child Development Services of Wyoming.

The program supports Wyoming’s vision that “all children will have opportunities for developmental success.” Local volunteers have been instrumental to the implementation of Raising Readers by helping promote the program, and assisting with book distribution and kick off events. Support for the Raising Readers program is also provided by the McMurray Foundation; Scott Foundation; Parent Education Network; Wyoming Department of Education; and others.

About the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning

The PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, founded by PacifiCorp to help communities served by Pacific Power and Utah Power, is in the third of a three-year, $1 million investment in early childhood literacy. The PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning is one of the largest utility endowments in the U.S. It has awarded 6,192 grants totaling more than $36.8 million to communities served by PacifiCorp.