Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Idaho’s First Lady reads at library

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Idaho’s First Lady Patricia Kempthorne read "Giraffe’s Can’t Dance," by Giles Andreae, to a group of some 40 valley youngsters Thursday, June 24, at The Community Library in Ketchum.

Idaho First Lady Patricia Kempthorne, right, reads at The Community Library in Ketchum. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Afterwards she talked to the children about reading in general and which books were their favorites. The First Lady was in town for the Governor’s Challenge with her husband, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

The annual three-day Governor’s Challenge event in Sun Valley includes golf, tennis, trap shooting and fly-fishing. Participants at last year’s event raised a record $150,000 for college scholarships. Twelve Governor’s Challenge Scholarships for four years each are awarded each year.

Mrs. Kempthorne reads at approximately four libraries each year as part of the Read Out Loud Program.

"I’ve been doing this as long as Dirk’s been governor," she said laughing, unsure of the exact number of years. In fact, the "Generation of the Child" was declared by Kempthorne in 1998 upon taking office. It was a promise to ensure that Idaho children are healthy and well educated.

The reading program is part of that promise, his wife said. "The point of the program is how important literacy is," she added. "There’s just amazing things going on in our libraries. It was a real fight to get them in many of the small rural communities, but now what would we do without them?"

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.