The Wallowa Valley Arts Council’s Artist of the Month project and the Wallowa County Library’s Training Wheels early literacy program were each awarded grants recently from Pacific Power’s charitable arm, the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning.

The Artist of the Month program received $5,000 from the foundation. The project’s mission is to provide art education and experiences for Wallowa County students and other residents using local and featured artists.

Each month one or two artists drawn from a variety of disciplines will conduct classes and demonstrations at area schools and other community venues. The artist will develop the curriculum for each class.

A partnership between the Ford Institute Leadership Team and the Wallowa Valley Arts Council will implement the project.

“Training Wheels,” which received $4,000 from the PacifiCorp foundation, works to spread literacy to kids from birth to age eight in the rural towns of Enterprise, Wallowa, Lostine, Joseph, Troy and Imnaha. It also seeks to mentor parents and caregivers on the importance of early learning environments.

Children’s activities include storytimes and outreach programs, free books, rotating literacy collections and other educational resources. Community and family activities include parent/child interactive classes, literacy outreach and community education. The grant will help provide 80 children’s programs at various local sites, 100 children’s books and funding for educational brochures and newsletters.

“Training Wheels is a perfect example of an educational program that pays huge dividends for large and small Oregon communities,” said Bill Clemens, regional community manager for Pacific Power. “Our foundation has years of experience funding successful early literacy programs, and this one is a winner.”

In its latest round of grants, the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning awarded nearly $63,000 civic and community grants to 14 nonprofit education programs throughout Oregon.

It also awarded $12,500 to small capital improvement projects in Portland, Moro and Medford.