Since 1998, Wisconsin Association for Home and Community Education (WAHCE) has provided free books to preschool children with the Wisconsin Bookworms reading program. That first year, volunteers read books to 1,375 children in 26 counties with 16,500 books being distributed. For the 2024-2025 school year, volunteers will read books to almost 4000 children in 33 Wisconsin counties.
We are fast approaching the ONE MILLION BOOK milestone! At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, a grand total of 987,000 books will have been given to 104,155 children.
Wisconsin Bookworms is a WAHCE sponsored program with educational support from UW Madison-Division of Extension. It is designed to provide free books and an early reading experience to children from limited income families. During the school year, volunteers read a book to the children, engage them in a related activity, and give a copy of the book to each child to take home to help create their own in-home library. Educational activity sheets are also provided for each book.
This collaboration has been very successful. In 2010, Wisconsin Bookworms was the recipient of the UW-Extension Chancellor’s Award. In 2011 and 2018 WAHCE received grants from the Green Bay Packers Foundation.
The Wisconsin Bookworms Advisory Team consists of:
WAHCE Chair – Jean Brew
Central District – Sandy Wendorff
Northeast District – Linda Vogel
Northwest District –Elaine Villeneuve
Southeast District – Marianne Geiger
Southwest District – Shirley Steinhorst, Lerna Mae Wiess
West District – Bernie Arena
2024 Impact Report — New 9/24
Wisconsin Bookworms Coordinator’s Page
2024 – 2025 Wisconsin Bookworms Booklist 
2024-2025 Activity Sheets Are available in Spanish and English. PDF format.
Wiggly Worm Coloring Sheets — New in 2024
Certificate of Completion for Students
Certificate of Completion for Bookworms Friends
Updated 2/7/2025
Webmaster: Donna Zarovy
url: http://www.wahceinc.org
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