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Evans County group targets young readers
Effort sends books monthly to preschool-age children
W EvansCountyKidsBooks
Claxton 4-year-olds (left to right) Carson Blocker, Luis Martinez, Edwin Blitch and Marissa Thornton show off books they have received in the first two monthly Ferst Foundation mailings. These Pre-K kids are at the top end of the age range for the program, which sends free books to children from infancy until their fifth birthday. - photo by Al Hackle/special
About 30 percent of Evans County's estimated 1,000 children under 5 years old receive one free book each month through the efforts of the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy and its local supporters. The group hopes the gift will help improve literacy and even the local economy in years to come. "The light bulb that came on in my mind was information that Evans County received when we were finalists for an industry and ended up not being chosen, and they were kind enough to tell us why," said Evans County Probate Judge Darin McCoy.
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