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Published Sunday, November 22, 2009 in Opinion

Help a child get an early start on an education

Editorial

This month in Coweta County, 1,958 children under age 5 will receive a free book mailed to their home. It's a gift from the Coweta Ferst Foundation, the local organization that wants to send a book monthly to every child from birth to age 5 in our community.

This is a program all Cowetans should support. It's a fact the infant years are so important to a child's education, and much of this time (from birth to age 5) is before a child enters a school. Having books and reading materials in the home and getting parents to read to their children is critical.

That's why the Ferst Foundation book program was formed in Georgia. Today, Coweta and 69 other Georgia counties in our state are involved in the book-mailing program. More than 1.6 million books have been mailed to 88,000 children statewide.

But there are thousands more eligible children in the state and in our community. Ferst says, statewide, there are 702,000 children under the age of 5. In Coweta, estimates indicate there are between 6,000 and 7,000 children under 5.

All these children could benefit from the books distributed by Ferst Foundation.

While the books are free to the children who sign up for the program, someone has to foot the bill. Here's the deal: All money for the books must be raised in each community where Ferst operates. It costs $36 a year to mail 12 books to one child.

Janie Lore, one of the leaders of the Coweta Ferst Foundation, says the local Ferst board is promoting sales of a holiday gift card to raise money to send books to more children.

A gift card costs $36 -- just the amount needed to send books to a child for a year.

You can buy a gift card by going online: www.cowetaferst.org, or they are available at Scotts Bookstore in downtown Newnan. You can also contact Lore at janielore@bellsouth.net.

If you want to make a donation to the local Ferst Foundation, you can make a check out to the Coweta Community Foundation and mail it to P.O. Box 236, Newnan, Ga. 30264. Note on the check it's for Ferst Foundation.

Some of our civic organizations are supporting Ferst in Coweta. Others should join the cause. It's also important for individuals to make a donation to Ferst. The gift card is a wonderful way to make a contribution in honor or in memory of someone this holiday season.

This is all about our children and ensuring they get an early start on receiving a quality education. Times are tough today, but we must not forget our children and their future.

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