J.L. Turner: Literacy Champion
What can a dollar buy? A book?
Usually not.
Mr. J.L. Turner, co- founder of Dollar General knew the need for many folks to stretch a dollar as far as possible. You might not know that he didn’t learn to read until adulthood, and is also a literacy champion.
Born in 1891, James Luther Turner grew up as the son of a Kentucky farmer and only received a third-grade education and never learned to read. His father died in an accident, so Turner quit school to work on the family farm. With hard work and determination, J.L. Turner went on to co-found a successful business despite his literacy challenges. Dollar General now has over 18,000 locations throughout the US. What an inspiration!
This is why in 1993, almost three decades after he passed, his son Cal Turner and grandson Cal Turner Jr. established The Dollar General Literacy Foundation to honor this remarkable individual. The foundation has awarded more than $182 million in grants to literacy organizations that have helped more than 11 million individuals learn to read, prepare for the high school equivalency or learn English, opening doors to countless bright futures of opportunity and success.
The Foundation’s focus is to support people of all ages on their educational journey by investing in literacy programs like BookGive (although our application was not awarded this year.) The Foundation achieves this goal by providing grant funding to support literacy and education initiatives such as nonprofit organizations, schools, and libraries within a 15-mile radius of Dollar General stores. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation supports numerous grant programs that serve a variety of goals and initiatives. These include adult literacy programs, the rebuilding of school libraries after disasters, family literacy organizations, and summer reading programs for students.
When literacy champions like J.L. Turner, and as we have previously highlighted, Dolly Parton, use their influence to support literacy, the entire community benefits. We at BookGive align with their goals to reduce barriers to literacy by making free books available to those who need them, no matter how far their dollar might stretch.
This blog contributed by Regis University student, Carlos Archuleta.
