EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) -Â Thanks to a donation, the Eau Claire Public Library's 'Laundromat Libraries' program will continue a second year.
The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library was recently awarded a $5,600 grant from the Women's Giving Circle Fund of the Eau Claire Community Foundation.
In 2022, the program offered roughly 1,900 books, and readers took home about 1,500 children's books in English, Spanish, and Hmong.
Because of the grant, organizers were also able to install a 'Family Read, Play, and Learn' space at one of the locations, Laundry Express on Golf Road.
The new space includes child-friendly seating, a magnetic white board with letter magnets, a 50-book starter library from Scholastic, and a 20 book per month subscription delivered to Laundry Express for the year.
"The purpose of the program is to increase access to great children's books that kids and families are excited to read to promote the development of early literacy skills. That happens between the ages of zero and eight," said Jerissa Koenig, an early literacy outreach librarian. "So these books are specifically geared towards kiddos of that age and the skills that they're gaining as they read with their families help them later on when they learn how to read."
The library is also partnering with the nonprofit Friends of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library to sustain the program throughout 2023 and beyond.
For a list of participating partner laundromats, click/tap here.
