Second Year For the second year in a row Wiscasset has received a grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation, through the Maine Department of Education's Maine Literacy Initiative. Wiscasset Adult Education Director Pam Moody, center, received the award from Maine's Firs

$25,000 grant

Wiscasset is one of eight communities that will receive a $25,000 grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

What's especially noteworthy is the fact that this is the second time Wiscasset has been a winner. Adult and Community Education Director Pam Moody accepted the award earlier in the month from Barbara Bush and Governor John Baldacci's wife, Karen Baldacci, at an awards ceremony in Biddeford on June 2.

Moody and Curriculum Director Emily Thompson are enthusiastic about the results of the program this year, and are looking forward to next year's program, which will include a new partnership with the Wiscasset Community Center.

The idea behind Wiscasset's family literacy program is to bring families together to improve reading skills in a setting that is conducive to learning. To that end, volunteers and paid staff provided child care, offered simple evening meals, read with children and adults in groups, followed up with group activities that were fun and challenging, and gave families books and materials to take home with them after each session.

Asked what they saw as good outcomes of the programs - in addition to improving reading skills - was the opportunity it gave parents to talk about the common problems all parents face in raising and disciplining their children.

"They loved to sit around afterwards and talk - sometimes we had to push them out the door," Moody says.

Some parents said they loved the idea of doing something with their children, while other parents said how wonderful it was to be able to have someone watch their children - give them a break - just be with other adults for a change.

Partners in the program this year, in addition to adult education and the primary school, were Head Start, Read With Me, and Healthy Kids. Head Start is a federally funded learning program for pre-Kindergarten children, which is held in Wiscasset at the primary school; Read With Me, sponsored by Tri County Literacy Volunteers, provides books for children to read with their parents and other activities that promote reading; and Healthy Kids, based in Boothbay, provides a variety of services for parents and very young children.

The idea of family literacy is to involve very young children at an early age, provide intergenerational activities, and offer parenting skills, like "dignified discipline," or how to talk to your kids so they will listen (what a concept!).

The final component was adult literacy - and to that end, Moody says every adult met his or her goal. Some received a high school diploma or G.E.D. and several developed math and English skills to the point where they are ready to go on to college.

Asked how they got families interested in the program, the answer was a well-publicized open house and orientation night.

"Some of the people who came that first night came to all the events," Moody said. Title I teachers were helpful in talking about the program to parents they knew, as well as teachers at the primary school, she said.

"We had an open enrollment," Thompson said. "People could come once, or a few times, or every time." The programs were from 5 to 7 p.m. Simple meals included sandwiches, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, pizza, and healthy snacks and beverages.

One night there were 28 children who arrived with their parents, which required "some re-structuring," in Thompson's words, but the evening went off well. Their youngest who attended was a five-week-old baby. Moody, who has two grandchildren of her own, says one night she had a baby in each arm.

In addition to special services director Steve Ocean and primary school principal Cheryl MacKeagney, a number of volunteers helped out, including Judy Flanagan, Pam Freeman, Nancy Wyman, Lisa Sharp, Jodi Prior, Tania Pomerleau, Lisa Hardman, and Felicia Wade.

About 18 families came regularly to the program, but depending on the particular activities, probably 100 parents and children took part at one point or another, Moody says. One of the most popular activities was Game Night.

Their next challenge is to integrate the program with Wiscasset's summer recreation program.

"This is a really rewarding program," Thompson says. "It makes you want to get up in the morning and look forward to coming to work."

Over $322,000 was awarded to Maine organizations by the Barbara Bush Foundation to the Maine Family Literacy Initiative this year, according to a press release from the Maine Department of Education. The foundation has awarded over $3 million to Maine organizations in the last 13 years. The foundation, established in 1989, has awarded over $30 million to almost 700 family literacy programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.