There are five LENA sites in Marathon County. The nonprofit effort is supported by grant funding that makes the program free to parents. In Wausau, the program grew out of a group of nonprofits and public agencies called the Early Years Coalition, which came together in recent years to try to emphasize the short- and long-term benefits of boosting early childhood education efforts.”This is something we can bite off and chew,” Dr. Corrie Norrbom said. “This is somewhere that we can actually give benefit to families, and use it as a platform to raise awareness as well.”