Read to children.                                 Encourage pregnant women to read to their babies before birth.                                 Always carry a book.                                Read in public: in the shopping line, in the waiting room, in restaurants, or waiting for a performance to start.                                 Hold Baby Book Showers for expectant parents.                                 Join or start a book club.                                 Join our Facebook group, ‘Swamp Water Literary Society.’                                 Give books as presents.                                 Read a book during work breaks.                                 Patronize our libraries.                                 Keep a bulletin board at work: What people are reading, what their friends and family are reading, what they want to read next.                                Give books as gifts.                                 Talk with people about what they’re reading.

The Acadiana Educational Endowment was founded in 1989, and was active for 3 decades until 2018, when the Recession forced the organization to suspend operations. The AEE is resuming operations in 2024 by launching the Reading with Kids™ initiative.

While active, the AEE made the following grants and gifts:

Year(s)	Program	Amount
1994-2006	Minigrants to Public School Teachers	$210,191
1999-2006	UL Abroad Scholarship for Teachers	$11,598
1997	Armstrong High School for the Arts – Planning	$3,277
1998	Initial Gift to Create Acadiana Youth Symphony Foundation	$2,000
1998	Acadiana Symphony Youth Concert Series	$2,000
1998	Museum Admissions, Children’s Museum of Acadiana	$2,000
2000	Student Theatre, Cité des Arts	$1,000
2000	Hurricane Relief to Schools	$291,974
2005	Northwest High School, Special Ed Program	$2,200
2018-Current	Venable Endowed Scholarship in Education, UL Foundation	$105,885
2018-Current	Venable Scholarship Disbursements	$22,450
	Smaller Grants & Gifts	$4,801
	TOTAL	$659,376