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Coffee County Manchester Public Library has been awarded a $1,000 grant through the Dollar General Literacy Fund in support of summer literacy. This local grant is a part of the Foundation’s largest, one-day literacy donation of more than $13 million throughout the 47 states in which Dollar General operates to support adult, family and summer literacy programs.

‘”We are so grateful to receive this grant to aid us this year and we were able to put it to good use,” Youth Services Librarian and Event Coordinator, Daphanie Gragg said. “Thank you again for your generosity to our library to help us aid the empowerment of our community.”

Gragg said area youth were able to learn and be involved in the community throughout the summer as part of its annual Summer Reading program thanks to donations by individuals and businesses.

“Because of these, we were able to reach 624 registered kids & their families for our program,” she said. “We had 16,479 books checked out the month of June, 320,204 total minutes read between the ages 6-18, & 7,039 books listened to by ages 0-5.”

Gragg said the library utilized the Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant to have a grand finale carnival to reward its summer readers.

“Not only did we have over $15,000 in prizes to give away, we teamed up with Masters of Ceremony & Bounds of Fun for the most epic end of summer reading party that Tennessee libraries have ever seen,” she said.

“We believe everyone deserves the opportunity and access to a quality education, and we look forward to seeing these literacy grants inspire reading and build brighter futures,” Denine Torr, executive director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, said.

Founded in 1993, The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $233 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 19.3 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a general education diploma or English proficiency.