FRANKFORT, KY -- For the third consecutive year, Kentucky Power Company is sponsoring "Read to Me Day" in several eastern Kentucky counties. On Thursday, Nov. 2, approximately 40 company employees will visit 26 elementary schools in Floyd, Greenup, Knott, Lawrence and Leslie Counties, to emphasize the joy and importance of reading.

Among the readers is Kentucky First Lady Glenna Fletcher, who will read at Campbell Elementary School in Greenup County. "Literacy and reading are important to the First Lady and she has spent much of her tenure emphasizing their importance across the Commonwealth. We are pleased she will be helping us spread that message to school children in our service territory," said Kentucky Power President and COO Tim Mosher.

"Kentucky Power’s Read to Me Day is a great community partnership to promote literacy," said Mrs. Fletcher. "Reading is the single most essential skill our children need for a successful lifetime of learning."

Also joining the list of volunteer readers is Knott County resident and children’s writer Nancy Kelly Allen, author of "The Munched-up Flower Garden," the book chosen for this year’s Read To Me Day event. Allen will be reading to second graders at Cordia Elementary School, in Knott County, the school she attended as a young girl.

The book tells the story of a little girl living along Troublesome Creek (an actual stream in Knott County) and her efforts to raise a prize-winning flower garden. The little girl’s efforts go awry when a goat "munches up" the garden, seemingly ruining her chances of winning a blue ribbon. The book is illustrated by Maryland artist K. Michael Crawford, an illustrator of more than 30 children’s books.

The Raceland-Worthington Independent School District is also pleased to have the First Lady emphasizing literacy in Greenup County. "Literacy and reading are the top priority at Campbell Elementary and throughout the Raceland-Worthington Independent School District," says Superintendent Frank Melvin. "We are honored to have the First Lady visit and read to our students. We appreciate the state’s commitment to literacy and we would like to express our thanks to Kentucky Power for supporting reading through this on-going initiative."

Read to Me Day is becoming an annual tradition at Kentucky Power. The company piloted the program in 2004 in Pike County, and now offers the program, on a rotating basis, to schools in its 20-county service territory.

On Read to Me Day, Kentucky Power volunteers read to second graders at schools that choose to participate. There is no cost to the schools and once the volunteer finishes reading the book, he or she donates it to the school’s library collection. This gives the students a chance to check the book out on their own. The volunteers also provide students an activity booklet on electricity and electrical safety, and encourage students to "play it safe" around electricity.

"Reading is fundamental to success – in life, in careers and in business," Mosher pointed out. "By championing reading for fun and development we are investing in future opportunities for our children. That’s something important to Kentucky Power and our employees."

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