Years ago, Betty Frandsen joined the Juvenile Hall Auxiliary, spending time in with the children and youth confined in Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall. She began talking with them and hearing them say they needed some way to be soothed so they could sleep at night.

“Her conversations with these children kept turning up how lonely and difficult night time was in an institutional setting,” said Susan Grice.

Frandsen then founded “The Late Show Bedtime Reading Program” at the county’s Juvenile Hall, a program Grice now directs. The Bedtime Reading Program is about to celebrate its 25th year of helping those youth.

Grice said Contra Costa County’s reader program may be the first of its kind.

And since the initial readers program started here, founders have helped get others started in other states. Recently, the program expanded into Alameda County.

“Our program is the essence of simplicity, a small symbol of a caring community,” Grice said.

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