By Julian Emerson
Leader-Telegram
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Children with parents spending this holiday season in jail will still hear their parents’ voices, thanks to a Literacy Volunteers-Chippewa Valley program that links parents and children via the reading of books.
The Parents Sharing Books program, in which LVCV staff records incarcerated parents reading books to their children and then provides those children with recordings and copies of those books, typically involves about 30 or so inmates in Eau Claire, Chippewa and Dunn counties. However, this year about 70 inmates made recordings to send to 98 children.
“It’s really unfortunate that these people are in jail,” said MaryJo Van Gompel, LVCV executive director. “But the good part is this year we are able to reach more families. In some cases, this might be the only present that some of these children receive from a parent.”
The number of inmates participating in the program in Chippewa and Dunn counties this year, eight and nine, respectively, is similar to recent years, said Louise Bentley, the LVCV corrections instructor who coordinates services with the jails. But the number of participants was up significantly in Eau Claire County, where 57 inmates read 74 books for their children.
“It seemed like more people knew about the program this year,” Bentley said. “There were certainly more people who wanted to participate.”
The Parents Sharing Books program has been up and running since 2003. Inmates showing an interest in taking part fill out paperwork, and LVCV staff buy note books for children. Staff then bring those books along with a recording device, and inmates read the books they have chosen. Their recordings include personal messages to their children.
“It is very touching to hear these readings,” Bentley said. “They greet their children and talk with them. When they’re done reading, they say things like ‘Merry Christmas. I love you’ and personal messages like that.”
After books are recorded, LVCV staff burn those words onto CDs, then send the CDs and books to parents. The entire process, including staff time, costs $3,000 to $4,000, Van Gompel said. But the program has a big impact, she said.
“This really fits our mission,” Van Gompel said. “We want to keep doing what we can to serve families and their children.”