Read Across America: An Opportunity to Support Literacy and Inspire Excitement about STEM

The National Education Association’s Read Across America Week (March 2-6) is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. During Read Across America Week, schools across the country provide special programming to instill a joy of reading in their students. Proficient literacy skills are a critical foundation for success in school and life. UGI Utilities is dedicated to improving literacy and providing greater access to books to students across our service territory.

Through our partnership with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), UGI Utilities gifted a unique Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) book collection to three randomly selected schools in our service territory in celebration of Read Across America Week. The schools included Drums Elementary in Hazleton Area School District, McNichols Plaza Elementary School in Scranton School District, and Crestview Elementary in the Carlisle Area School District.

This book collection combined UGI’s efforts of focusing STEM-related programs with literacy, to help inspire the next generation of STEM professionals. As an energy provider, we rely on professionals with STEM and technical skills to deliver safe and reliable energy. With a focus on sustainability, it is vitally important for UGI to pursue innovation and ensure there are talented people to drive that innovation. Through the RIF/STEM book collections, we hope to get students excited about STEM while enhancing literacy skills.

UGI Utilities is proud to support RIF’s efforts to improve literacy and increase access to books for students throughout our service territory. The UGI-RIF Books for Ownership program currently operates in 71 elementary schools and school-adjacent programs in over 20 counties across the state of Pennsylvania. UGI Utilities has been partnering with RIF to distribute books to local students for 33 years, making UGI Utilities their longest partner. Since 1991, the UGI-RIF partnership has distributed over 1.6 million books to more than 543,000 students, and UGI employees have provided over 20,000 hours of volunteer service reading to children and helping with book distributions.

Follow UGI Utilities on Facebook (@UGIUtilities), Twitter (@UGI_Utilities), and Instagram (@ugiutilities) or visit https://www.ugi.com/community-programs to learn more about how UGI is supporting literacy in the community.