URBANDALE, Iowa - Iowa Stories 2000, a literacy program organized by First Lady Christie Vilsack, commenced its fifth year on Monday, April 24, in Dubuque, where Mrs. Vilsack delivered copies of “The Pickle Patch Bathtub” to kindergarteners from Table Mound, Lincoln, Hoover and Bryant Elementary Schools. Through Iowa Stories 2000, Mrs. Vilsack has raised $200,000 per year in order to give a book to each kindergartener in the state of Iowa, which amounts to over 42,000 books per year. She personally delivers the books to several schools throughout Iowa in both urban and rural areas of the state.

“The Pickle Patch Bathtub” was written by Frances Kennedy, a retired Dubuque sixth-grade teacher.

The book is an uplifting, true story of the author’s mother, who, as an adolescent, had outgrown the family’s galvanized washtub and was determined to earn enough money to buy the family a real bathtub. She recruited her siblings to help her grow cucumbers to sell to the pickle factory in Keokuk, Iowa to earn money.

The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) is proud to be a part of this project by donating soy crayons to the kindergarteners, which they received with their
book.