The Literacy Bell

Hello Everyone!!

When I posted the earlier blog about the Literacy Bell it occurred to me that perhaps you might like some further information about this wonderful wonderful bell.

First off before we built our new library we wanted to be able to engage the whole community in as many ways as possible, as we are the center of literacy and language in our community. We sought to embrace, encourage, and enable our youngest patrons to be lifelong readers.

Enter the Literacy Bell. The Literacy Bell was lovingly donated in memory of Katherine Hoffman by her children and grandchildren. Its wonderful clear and distinct sound is a symbol for something very special, that incredible and magical moment when a child can make the letters on a page become a word and then that word plays in a sentence and finally that sentence becomes magically a story.

Ringing the bell has become a statement in our community that literacy, language, and lifelong reading equals success and is important to us! Ours is the original Literacy Bell in the United States. However, Georgia and a few other states have Literacy Bell's now as well.

In our community there are 3 public school systems, a Christian school, and a large home-schooled population. All students from each type of education are eligible to be a "bell ringer."

A coupon to ring the bell is given to each student after they have read a book from the list of selected books to a designated person at their school or home school. They also receive a sticker that reads, "I read my first book." The coupon is brought to the Library and allows the bell to be unlocked. The child writes their name and the date in the "Book of Names."

"It began with a wish, evolved into a dream, and is now a symbol of literacy for a small town."

With today's Literacy Bell we had over 100 new readers!!
Congratulations to our NEW readers!!

"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you will go." ~Dr. Seuss

Anywho, I hope this helps.

Lindsey!!