SEUSS ON THE LOOSE

The Cat in the Hat has been all over Monticello this week, visiting in schools, businesses, on the street, in the library, at the Retreat, the Visitors’ Center, Dairy Queen, Ingles, you name it! Above, he is in the window at the Visitors’ Center promoting Seuss on the Loose this Saturday, March 7, from 10 a.m. to noon.

He also visited with Tamela Alexander at the Jasper County Library (bottom left) and a resident Jane Quenelle at The Retreat Nursing Home (bottom right). All the visits were to promote the event this Saturday at Jasper County High School, 14477 Hwy. 11 North, Monticello.

The event is the annual fund raiser for the Ferst foundation in Jasper County that provides an age-appropriate book for children from birth to five years old. The children receive the books in the mail each month, and it encourages household literacy….not just giving the children the love of reading, but sometimes boosting the parents’ reading skills as well. Any child is eligible to receive the books, they just need to sign up.

If they sign up at Saturday’s event, they will receive a bookcase to hold the first books they receive. It costs only $32 a year to sponsor a child, and sponsors who sign up this week will receive a free t-shirt. There will be 18 booths at the event offering fun and games for the children, and there’s also “chances to win” some of which appeal to the parents and grandparents of those young children. Students in grades five and younger at local schools were to get two free tickets at school this week, and plenty more can be purchased at the event.

Tickets are 50 cents each, and are used for activities, food and beverages. This is the only fund raiser Ferst has annually, and so far it has been sufficient to fill the needs of all eligible children. Lynne Jordan coordinates the event. Children who can’t make it Saturday can sign up at www.ferstfoundation.org.