Congratulatons to the Corinth Friends of the Library
A grant opportunity came calling for the Corinth Library.
T-Mobile announced a grant of $50,000 to the Friends of the Corinth Library for a revamp of the children’s area with new learning activities, an interactive play area, new floor seating, and more than 1,000 new books, including a selection of titles in Spanish. It is all intended to encourage families to visit, learn and enjoy.
Sometimes, it pays to have good friends.
T-Mobile recently announced a grant of $50,000 to the Friends of the Corinth Library for a revamp of the children’s area with new learning activities, an interactive play area, new floor seating, and more than 1,000 new books. It is all intended to encourage families to visit, learn and enjoy.
Brittany Bryant, who had never before written a grant application, was successful on her first try. She and some friends who have a book club wanted to offer support to the library and began an effort to revive the Friends of the Library group after learning it had been inactive for some time.
As a mother of young children, Bryant said she sees the importance of the library.
“I just love ours, and it’s down the street from where I used to live,” she said.
She likes the children’s area but saw the opportunity for some enhancements. Rather than doing a fundraiser, she looked for grant opportunities and found the T-Mobile grant.
She is excited about adding some interactive elements for younger children who are not yet readers. She said the new books will bring in titles that are more relevant to today’s kids, and a number of Spanish language titles will be added.
Her grant application noted that 4.6 percent of local students speak English as a second language, while 0.6 percent of the available titles are in Spanish. She found that the number of English as a second language program students increased by 124 percent in the city and county schools combined over the last seven years.
Reading in their native language could help encourage those children to read, she said.
Bryant hopes to see many of the new elements in place in the next three to six months.
The grant program is part of a T-Mobile initiative focused on boosting small markets and rural areas.
“Things like what you are doing, kind of keeping this as a hub for families, is super important,” said Matt Cantu, director of sales operations and business planning. “We are exceptionally proud to be a part of that.”
He praised the initiative shown by Bryant.
“You guys should all be very proud of Brittany, because this is not an easy thing to do at all,” said Cantu. “There were over 300 applications for this quarter, and Corinth was one of 25 that were selected. So that is a very, very big deal.”
Mayor Ralph Dance welcomed the opportunity for library upgrades.
“This investment will allow improvements to be made that will help keep children engaged and our community supported,” he said. “We are so thankful to T-Mobile for investing in our wonderful city.”
-Jebb Johnston, Daily Corinthian
