United Way of East Tennessee Highlands partners with Elizabethton/Carter County Library to help students

Published 3:34 pm Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
United Way of East Tennessee Highlands has partnered with the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library to assist area students with literacy needs. The two organizations with be working in conjunction with Elizabethton City and Carter County Schools to help provide access to the library’s digital collection for all city and county school aged children this fall.
The project was formulated after a conversation between ECCPL Children’s Librarian Ashlee Williams and Happy Valley Middle School Librarian Audra Monroe. The talk centered around how students could have access to the libraries growing eBooks and eMaterials collections to the students during this time of COVID.
“We are all adjusting the changes we face from COVID. Children usually have the benefit of our technology and our resources that are not available now that we are curbside. In having partners like United Way and the ability to think out of the box, we were able to help all our area student,s” stated ECCPL Library Director Bernie Weese.
A $1000 donation from United Way East Tennessee Highlands will assist in ensuring over 7,500 students in city and county schools are given a digital library card that will allow them to access materials through READS and Libby.
“United Way of East Tennessee Highlands strives to support that all students are proficient in reading skills by third grade. That is the critical age when a child starts to fall behind as classes move to reading to learn rather than learning to read. We are so happy to be able to help out local students in their academic efforts,” said Kristan Spear, President and CEO of United Way East Tennessee Highlands.
Williams stated that for some this would also be a chance to get a library card when they otherwise would not have access to one. The library plans to release more information on how students can obtain their card from the school system.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox