Dale Horowski presented a $3000 check from the Rotary Club of Ludington to Emily Garland, Mason County District Library - Ludington and Scottville’s children’s librarian, in support of the Unbound student book delivery program during Rotary's Thursday, January 11th noon meeting.
"Literacy is a major area of focus for Rotary International", Horowski, Ludington Past President said. "The Unbound program seeks to eliminate barriers to access to books for underserved students in Mason County.
"In 2019 as the COVID pandemic was just beginning, the Rotary Club of Ludington applied for a grant from Community Foundation for Mason County in the amount of $3,000. With this initial funding, the current Unbound program was launched to serve Mason County Eastern Schools and Gateway to Success Academy (G2S).
Today, Unbound has been successfully implemented throughout the county." It is the second donation of $3,000 from Rotary Club of Ludington to Unbound. Garland said 17,381 books have been lent to students through the program since Unbound's inception in 2019, including 1,518 so far this school year. That has meant a potential savings to students and their families of an estimated $171,000 by borrowing the books instead of buying them.