VFL Love for Literacy $5,000 drawing set for Valentine’s Day

One lucky person will be $5,000 richer on Valentine’s Day when Clarkesville’s Main Street Director Trudy Crunkleton draws the winning ticket for Volunteers for Literacy’s Love for Literacy $5,000 Raffle at Your Pie in Clarkesville.

In keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme, prior to the 7 p.m. drawing, Four Bass Hit, a Habersham County barbershop quartet, will sing love songs.

Tickets are $20 each and with only 1,000 tickets printed, chances of winning are one in 1,000. Buying five tickets for $100 improves the chance of winning to one in 200.

Tickets are tax-deductible and proceeds will go to support life-changing literacy programs in Habersham County.

Students at Baldwin Elementary show off their new dictionaries presented last fall by Volunteers for Literacy.

Empowering people through literacy

Volunteers for Literacy’s mission is to empower people through literacy so they can lead more productive and fulfilling lives. The non-profit agency does that through various programs that serve people of all ages.

VFL promotes literacy among Habersham’s children and youth through the Dictionary Project and Scripps Spelling Bee. Each year, the agency distributes free dictionaries to all county 3rd graders. VFL also pays for county schools to enter the annual spelling bee, buys trophies, and arranges cash prizes for the winners.

VFL promotes adult literacy by teaching free English classes to non-native speakers and provides scholarships so that adults can afford to go back to school to earn their GEDs.

To encourage reading among all ages, VFL has installed and maintains 17 Little Free Libraries around Habersham County.

Proceeds from the raffle will go to help support all of these programs.

South Habersham 7th grader Kayla Nifong, second from right, won this year’s Habersham County District Level Scripps Spelling Bee. Clarkesville Elementary 5th grader Addisyn Hallford was runner-up. They’re joined by Habersham County Director of Elementary Schools Rhonda Andrews and superintendent of schools Matthew Cooper.

According to raffle organizers, for every $20 ticket sold, VFL can purchase eight new student dictionaries. Fifteen tickets will cover the cost of spelling bee registration and a trophy for one school. And the more tickets that are sold, the more money that’s available to pay for English Language Acquisition teachers and GED scholarships.

The efforts of all of these programs combined have resulted in the Technical College System of Georgia designating Habersham County as a Certified Literate Community.

“This is possible only with support from United Way and the generosity of citizens and businesses who contribute to our annual fundraisers,” states Dr. Don Gnecco, VFL board president. “We are so blessed.”

Raffle tickets are still available and may be purchased from any VFL board member; in Clarkesville at A to Zinc Health Store and Smoothie Bar and Elizabeth & Company; by going to the VFL website www.vflhabersham.com.

Tickets also will be available to purchase at the drawing from 6:30 p.m. until 6:55 p.m. Your Pie is located at 1406 Washington Street on the square in downtown Clarkesville.

SEE ALSO

Little Free Libraries give others the gift of literacy