Carrier Mills-Stonefort school receives $3,000 Literacy Fund grant

The Carrier Mill-Stonefort Elementary School has received a $3,000 grant from the Dollar General Corporation's Literacy Foundation.

The grant application process was spearheaded by grade school instructor Christy Lewis, the school receiving the check at the local Dollar General Store on Friday morning.

"I had returned to school to get another graduate degree," Lewis said. "I was taught about a new education process called 'differentiated instruction' which involves children learning at their own level of knowledge. Our goal is to establish a reading room for kindergarten through fourth grade and begin a pilot program utilizing this process for the kindergarten through second grades this year."

Lewis realized that the school did not have enough books for the reading program she envisioned, as multiple copies of each title are required, and began researching available grants. Upon finding the Dollar General Foundation, Lewis wrote up and submitted a grant application. She was very pleased when Dollar General responded with a $3,000 grant.

In a press release, Dollar General 's Chairman and CEO said, "Youth Literacy grants from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation make a distinct impact on the communities we serve by supporting programs that improve education and enhance literacy. At Dollar General, we are passionate about our mission of serving others and it's exciting to see the real difference literacy and learning make in people's lives."

Lewis said the grant would allow 882 books to be purchased including 147 titles in multiple copies. The works would be fiction and non-fiction and the order was to be placed Monday.

"We are very proud to have the support of local businesses like Dollar General that want to see our students succeed in reading by helping us supply them with the materials that need to read at or above their grade level," said Principal Bryce Jerrell

"I'm just overwhelmed," said Lewis. "This grant will really help our children and make a lasting impact on our school's ability to educate students."