Funding for a New Library in Twiggs County, GA

Community issue: In 2010, Fort Valley State University’s public library in Twiggs County, Georgia burned down after being struck by lightning. The 25-year-old library housed computers and technology that many people did not have available to them in their homes, as well as more than 15,000 books that were destroyed.

How it was addressed: Last summer, 21 Georgia 4-H delegates from multiple counties joined forces at the Citizenship Washington Focus (CWF) program to come up with an action plan to help this local community. The delegates from across the state collected close to 20,000 books to sell during the statewide 4-H event in Georgia called Fall Forum.  They also hosted a “change war” where they passed buckets around to participants at the event encouraging them to donate any spare change.

Results: Through both of these efforts, the group was able to raise more than $1,200 that will go toward getting new books and furnishings for the library. The 4-H’ers efforts helped support the rebuilding of the library which will provide the people of the county with the resources that were lost in the fire.

What happens next? The new Twiggs County Library is scheduled to open in 2013 and will be approximately 8,000 square feet.

What does Whitney have to say? “Helping support the Twiggs County library was a great way to bring a large number of people from across the state together to support a local issue. As a CWF delegation, we learned how to recognize an issue, how to create a plan to solve it, and how to put that plan into action. We started a revolution by helping to support the building of a new library which will benefit people throughout the community for years to come,” - Whitney Kirkpatrick, CWF 2011 Georgia Delegate.