Five active and two retired employees of PP&L, Inc. from the company's Hazleton area Community of Volunteers are helping to shape tomorrow's work force today by volunteering to read a book to different first and second grade classes as part of the Third Annual Community Reading Day (4/27).

For some of the volunteers, like Florie McNelis and Martha Herron, the reading assignment offers a chance to share some quality classroom time with a son or a goddaughter. For others, like retiree Helen Demaynish, it is a chance to rekindle a pre-PP&L, Inc. career as a teacher and to simply be around young children again.

The third annual event is sponsored by Fleet Pennsylvania Services, Inc., the Luzerne County Reading Council, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Reading Association and a consortium of chambers of commerce from Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Carbondale, Pittston and Wayne County.

"Children at this age, in the first and second grades, are at a critical stage in their education, and an appreciation for reading is the key to their future success inside and outside of the classroom," said Martha Herron, PP&L, Inc.'s community development director for the Hazleton area. "Being involved in the Community Reading Day is a great grassroots example of how we add to the vitality of the communities we are privileged to serve at both the company and individual employee levels," Herron added.

PP&L, Inc.'s volunteer readers include:

• McNelis, customer programs director at PP&L, Inc. in Hazleton, is reading to the first grade at Holy Trinity School in Hazleton, in the same class where her son Connor is a student.
• Herron is reading to the second grade at Holy Trinity, in the same class where her goddaughter, Brittany Stevens, is a student.
• Demaynish, a 13-year PP&L, Inc. employee who retired in 1993 as a lab analyst in the chem lab, is reading to the second grade class at Heights Terrace Elementary School in Hazleton. Prior to working at PP&L, Inc., she had an earlier career as a medical technologist, and before that, taught science and math briefly at the secondary education level.
• Glorie Brill, a 41-year PP&L, Inc. employee who retired in 1984 as a supervisor in stenographic services in Hazleton, is reading to the first grade class at Heights Terrace.
• Anna Jean Onuschak, employed at the System Facilities Shops in Hazleton, is reading to the second grade class at the Arthur Street School in Hazleton.
• Margaret Yost, a night shift tool/material clerk at the System Facilities Shops in Hazleton, is reading to the second grade class at the Valley Elementary School in Hazleton.
• Tony Matz, an electric repairman leader in Hazleton, is reading to the second grade class at the Hazle Elementary School in Hazleton.