The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress has announced the Waynesboro-Wayne County Library's Laundry & Literacy Project has been selected as one of the State Literacy Award winners for 2019. The project was nominated by the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC), the state affiliate for the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

The ongoing literacy project is located in four laundromats. Every two weeks the library staff delivers fiction, non fiction, large print books, magazines, coloring books, crayons, flash cards, Spanish materials and crossword puzzle books to the laundromats so that area residents may read while they are doing their laundry and also take any of the books home to keep and share with their families.

 

The Laundry & Literacy Project received a $2,100 award. Library Director Patsy C. Brewer states that the funds from this award will be utilized to purchase "Little Free Libraries" to further advance literacy efforts in Wayne County. 

 

The Library of Congress State Literacy Awards Program recognizes organizations

or programs that have made outstanding and innovative contributions to promoting

literacy and/or reading in the local community or state. This program is made possible through the generous support of David M. Rubenstein. Since 2013, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program has awarded $1.4 million in prizes to 66 institutions in 30 countries. 

Mississippi's Center for the Book, housed at the Mississippi Library Commission, is devoted to promoting and exploring Mississippi's rich literary heritage through statewide activities. For more information contact Mississippi Center for the Book Director Tracy Carr at tcarr@mlc.lib.ms.us or visit www.lettersaboutliterature.org.

 

 For more information about the Laundry & Literacy Project, contact the library at (601) 735-2268 or by email at wlib@wwcls.lib.ms.us.

Submitted by 

Patsy C. Brewer

Library Director

Waynesboro-Wayne County Library