Former first lady Barbara Bush announced $234,995 in grants to Maine Family Literacy Initiative programs Tuesday during an appearance at J. Richard Martin Community Center in Biddeford.

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy distributed the grants to organizations in 15 Maine communities, including Bangor, Old Town, Madawaska, Ashland, Rockland and Tenants Harbor.

Eight programs statewide received $25,000 full family literacy grants, and seven others received $5,000 planning grants.

“I’m so proud of the students and teachers who have participated in our Maine Family Literacy Initiative,” Bush said at the ceremony. “We know that thousands of parents and children are now able to share the pleasure as well as benefits of reading as a result of their hard work in the 166 family literacy programs funded by the Maine Family Literacy Initiative so far.”

Bush’s foundation annually awards grants designed to develop family literacy programs for communities in Texas, Florida, Maryland and Maine.

Maine’s first lady, Karen Baldacci, and other grant recipients looked on as Bush handed out $25,000 checks to the Madawaska school department, Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, SAD 32 (Ashland), and the Teen and Young Parent Program of Knox County (Rockland), among others.

Jackson Memorial Library in Tenants Harbor and the Old Town school department each received $5,000 planning grants.

Baldacci said she was pleased with Bush’s attention to the state.

“Reading holds the key to success in life,” Baldacci said at the ceremony. “Barbara Bush has devoted many years of work to promote and increase family literacy. I would like to thank and honor her on behalf of the people of the state of Maine for her dedication to such a worthy cause.”

Rebecca Dyer, the adult and family literacy director from the Maine Department of Education, said Barbara Bush’s foundation has granted money to Maine initiatives for the past 12 years but tends not to give funds to communities that have received the grant in the past.

“The $5,000 planning grants are awarded to communities with the idea that they will be able to put together a program plan and application for the $25,000 full family grants the next year,” Dyer said in a phone interview. “But she [Bush] tries not to give the same communities more than one $25,000 grant.”

As a result, Dyer estimates that more than 70 Maine communities have received funding from the foundation.

Dyer said at the event that the planning grants were particularly effective in bringing agencies together to talk about family literacy and identify the existing resources available already to support family literacy programs.

For more information on the Maine Family Literacy Initiative, call 624-6880.