Donation to Reading is Fundamental Provides Technology and Reading Opportunity
For Needy Children in Four Cities Across the Nation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Electric Lightwave Inc. (ELI)
(Nasdaq: ELIX), one of the nation's leading integrated communications
providers, is helping literacy programs in four cities across the country. In
an effort to pilot an initiative to teach children more about the Internet and
e-commerce, the donation goes towards the purchasing and distributing of free
new books to elementary school students -- just in time for September
back-to-school celebrations.
The initiative, called "Log into Reading," underscores Electric
Lightwave's commitment to strengthening exciting links among computer users,
the Internet and reading. In support of this commitment, Electric Lightwave
has made a $75,000 donation to Reading is Fundamental Inc., (RIF) one of the
nation's oldest and largest children's and family literacy organizations.
"This donation supports our corporate value to give something back to the
communities we serve," said Jack Hardy, corporate communications manager at
Electric Lightwave. "We believe that linking computers, the Internet and
reading will encourage the development of skills that children need to succeed
in the future."
The donation enables RIF programs in four cities to expand existing book
distributions and motivational literacy programs by ordering additional
children's books through Amazon.com, an Electric Lightwave customer and the
world's largest online bookseller. Along with Electric Lightwave, Amazon.com
is an active proponent of advancing education and literacy through technology.
The pilot project is designed to explore developing interactivity between
local RIF program sites and Internet resources.
"RIF appreciates this generous donation. It enables us to provide funds
for some local programs to participate in an innovative RIF project to expand
Web-based activities at our grassroots level," said Richard E. Sells, RIF
senior vice president. "Electric Lightwave's support makes a difference where
it counts -- in the field among RIF programs that serve several individual
sites."
The pilot programs for this initiative are in Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles
and Washington, D.C.
In conjunction with the International Literacy Day on September 8,
Electric Lightwave will hold an official ceremony and photo opportunity in
Washington, D.C. to introduce children to reading and the Internet. The
ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. at the Humanities of Greater Washington
located at 1331 H. Street, NW, Suite 902.
About Reading is Fundamental
Founded in 1966, RIF develops and delivers children's and family literacy
programs that help prepare young children for reading and motivate older
children to read. Through a national network of more than 240,000 parents,
teachers and other volunteers, RIF programs provide books and other essential
literacy resources to children, at no cost to them or their families. RIF
focuses on reaching children from infancy to age 11 most at risk educationally
and economically. By the end of the year 2000, RIF will have put more than
200 million books into the hands and homes of America's children.
About Electric Lightwave
Electric Lightwave Inc. is a leading integrated communications provider of
enhanced data services, frame relay, ATM and Internet access solutions to
bandwidth intensive businesses and the growing e-commerce market. The company
provides long distance, Internet and data services nationwide, with data
points-of-presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Denver,
Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Calif., Philadelphia, San Diego,
San Francisco, San Jose and Washington, D.C.
As a full-service provider, the company offers businesses local, long
distance and high-speed broadband transport that interconnects major markets
in the West, including Seattle, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Boise,
Spokane and Portland, Ore.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Wash., the company employs 1,233 and earned
revenues of $101 million in 1998, up 65 percent from 1997. Additional
information about Electric Lightwave Inc. is located on the World Wide Web at
http://www.eli.net.
SOURCE Electric Lightwave Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.eli.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/117258.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 117258
CONTACT:
Rebecca Seebert, 360-816-3198, or
rebecca_seebert@eli.net, or Jack Hardy, 360-816-3602, or
jack_hardy@eli.net, both of Electric Lightwave Inc.; or Deborah
Bongiorno of Reading is Fundamental, 202-287-3774, or
deborahb@rif.org
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