Ala-Tom RC&D Council

RC&D: Resource Conservation and Development based on community-driven collaboration and communication.

Perry

Marion-Perry County Library Children’s Programing

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The Marion-Perry County Library received three grants for its largest, most expanded Summer Reading Program in history.  This year we planned two sessions a day on each Tuesday and Wednesday.  The sessions are to be divided by age, with the small children coming in the mornings for fun activities and educational programs.  The older children, age seven and above, will come for a book oriented reading club format in which they actually read, and read, and read.

Every day we will have presenters, such as Memo the Clown, wildlife experts, woodworking projects, crafts and an entire petting zoo for a whole day.  There will be crafts, movies, books, music, dancing, art, and refreshments.

 

Marion-Perry County Library Utilities Grant

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This grant was used to pay utilities for the Marion-Perry County Library.  It paid approximately one half of the annual amount of utilities.  By having this grant pay such necessities, it allowed us to use more of our budget for such things as children’s programming and new books.  The library paid ATT, Alabama Power, Marion Water, Quick Books/Intuit, Jackson Security and Dex Imaging (Printer).

Marion-Perry County Library General Expenses

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For a number of years, the Marion-Perry County Library has not been able to secure enough funds at the local level to operate the library on a fulltime basis.  Last year during Covid we had to reduce the  number of days that we were open to three.  We simply did not have enough funds to pay staff to be open more than three days a week.

This year, with the funds from RC&D we have been able to pay our monthly bills and apply our local funds to staffing expenses, thus allowing us to be open four days a week.  This has mean a great deal to our patrons, many of whom rely on the library on a daily basis for internet and computer service.  We were also able to buy more books this year with the money that was freed up for collections when RC&D funds helped us with our utilities.

South Side Well Pump

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The south side well pump will provide water to the cattle on the south side property.  The sell of these cows the profits goes towards St. Michael’s Iron Horse Charities to help defray the cost of the events we put on each year for disabled veterans and 1st responders.

Marion-Perry County Library Summer Reading Program

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The Marion-Perry County Library was busy all spring getting ready for the Summer Reading Program.  Because of Covid and the uncertainty of having large groups in the library, we decided to work with the Head Start Program, Horseshoe Farm Project and Main Street Marion to plan a program that would reach out to the children in small numbers at a time.  Beginning in March, we went to the Headstart classrooms and presented programs based on their curriculum.  These were conducted by Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Nail, and would ordinarily have been in the library.  At the same time, our children’s librarians began purchasing and ordering books, puzzles, games, treats and other educational materials to give to the children in the summer.  We have spent most of our money to  place hardback educational books in the bags, with an emphasis on the graduating Head Start classes to promote literacy during the summer.  We have had six in-house reading and story times, with children receiving bags at each visit.  We have also coordinated with the Head Start teachers to distribute bags to the children who were unable to come into the library (this is still ongoing as the summer progresses.  None of this would have been possible without RC&D.