Casey County has a high illiteracy rate.  School readiness finding show (four out of five) children begin school without ever having held a book let alone owing one of their own.  Many school age children do not own a book of their own.  Early literacy and a love of reading is a key factor in students long term success.  Casey County Extension Homemakers decided to address this community issue by engaging in a three year program,  Project Casey County READS was developed and implemented.  Extension Homemakers attended school readiness meetings, met with local schools, talked with parents and collaborated with the Family & Consumer Sciences Agent to develop and implement a program to help be part of the solution. Over two-thousand books were collected and distributed to local children to keep as their own.  Books were distributed thru all three local elementary school libraries.  Extension Homemakers also collected books and assisted FCS Agent with LEAP programs for Head Start and Kindergarten programs thru their Helping Hands volunteer program.