CHARLESTON, W.Va., November 15, 2011 – On Nov. 17, Appalachian Power employees will celebrate Read to Me Day by sharing a book with students at more than 410 elementary schools. Appalachian Power has been participating in Read to Me Day for 11 years in West Virginia, and for the first time is expanding the program to Virginia and Tennessee.

A group of approximately 300 employee volunteers will fan out across the company’s service territory to read the book How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning to elementary school students. The book is written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer of Virginia, and is about Franklin’s many inventions, including how he used his discovery about lightning to make people’s lives safer.

At each of the schools, employees will read to students in two or more classrooms, then donate the book to the school’s library. The company began large-scale participation in West Virginia in 2001, and since that time has donated more than 3,400 books to school libraries and read aloud to more than 150,000 students.

“We’re very excited to expand Read to Me Day to our entire service territory. Our goal remains the same: to encourage a love of reading,” said Jeri Matheney, Appalachian Power communications director. “Good readers make good students, and the best way to turn children into readers is to read aloud to them.”

Appalachian Power has almost 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, which delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.  

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