Students at Camp Creek Elementary will soon have some new reading material at their disposal, as a grant written by students in a Tusculum College grant writing course has made possible the purchase of new books for the school’s library program.
“We are so excited about the grant, and so appreciative of the students at Tusculum College for doing this for us,” said Jennifer Reeves, the Camp Creek Elementary School librarian. “The vast majority of the money will go toward the purchase of new book titles for students in the school to read and check out.”
Reeves said that with limited funds each year, it is hard for them to keep current titles in the library, and it is disappointing to not have an exciting new series when a student comes in and asks for it.
The grant is from the Dollar General and also allows some of the funds to be used for library programming.
Dr. Michael Bodary, associate professor of English who taught the grant writing course offered at Tusculum College, explained why he enjoys teaching it. “Tusculum has an ongoing commitment to civic engagement, so I am constantly looking for opportunities where students can apply what they learn in the classroom to help better the lives of those around them. With one success under their belts, I hope these students are encouraged to write more grants after they graduate—or even explore grant writing as a career.”
Tusculum students who worked on the grant were journalism and professional writing majors Madilyn Elliott Whitley from Hampton, who graduated in May, Meg Franklin of Newport, and Jonathon Dennis of Rome, Georgia.
“What made our grant different was how out-of-the-box it was, I think,” said Whitley. “Reading doesn’t just mean novels and stories, so we played on that. This program gets kids reading nontraditional material, like video game guides and magazines, and has people in ‘dream jobs’ telling them how reading is important in every career field. We wanted to break the mold of reading programs, and I think that contributed to it getting funded.”
She added, “I chose to work on this grant because reading is and always has been a priority to me. I come from a school like Camp Creek, where the library had little money to spend on new books. Sometimes libraries are the only access kids have to reading, and it is vital that we give kids every opportunity to read, expand their horizons, and figure out who they want to be. Dollar General is doing a great service in funding literacy programs, and I’m just grateful that I was able to help connect them to a local school.”