Four members of the Greenbrier County Chapter of Read Aloud West Virginia (RAWV) attended the RAWV conference at Stonewall Resort on July 24 and 25.

RAWV is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to motivating children to want to read. The goal is to inspire a life-long love of reading that will enrich their lives and serve as a foundation for learning. To accomplish this, RAWV trains volunteers to read weekly in classrooms for 20 to 30 minutes and also supplies books, magazines and reading materials for enrolled schools.

The featured speaker for the conference was Clayton Burch, WV associate superintendent of schools. He lauded the work of Read Aloud and announced that the program has been awarded $75,000 in grant money for the 2017-2018 school year. Many topics were covered at the conference including funding, Books-A-Million fundraiser project, program challenges, and reader recruitment and orientations. Currently RAWV is funded mainly by grants, annual donations (corporate and individual) and special events.

To become a volunteer reader for Read Aloud, call the Greenbrier County Public Library in Lewisburg at 304-647-7568. For more information on the program, email readaloud@frontier.com or visit www.readaloudwestvirginia.org.