We can be proud of our community’s record of grant support. Last year, Project YES began; Allied Arts and the Convention & Visitors Bureau have been recent grant beneficiaries; on the horizon is the possibility of better ball fields and other recreational spaces through a potential Department of Natural Resources grant. This October, we’ll all have a chance, if we choose, to read the same book and further our local grant outreach and support in an effort to better our community.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. For The Big Read in October, it will be possible to get teachers’ guides, readers’ guides, the book itself, and programming at no charge. The book is Ernest Gaines’ novel “A Lesson Before Dying.” All these opportunities depend on numbers: To get grant support for our community, we need to participate in after school programs, recreation and community events.

The Big Read program has been quite successful in other towns and cities throughout the country, helping to foster book clubs, new writer’s groups and other activities for the arts, and there is certainly potential to do the same and beyond here in our own community.

A 2007 report released by the National Endowment for the Arts revealed that Americans are reading far less today than in years past. The report found that only 57 percent of Americans had read a book in 2002 — a four percentage-point drop in a decade.

Numerous studies have already revealed to us that there is a direct correlation between literacy and crime rates and jobs and economic opportunity. Reading is the foundation for so many other avenues, yet fewer numbers of us are taking advantage of all that books and literacy have to offer.

Literary reading can be for everyone, and “A Lesson Before Dying” is a good choice for Milledgeville. There’s a movie version, too, and Twin Pines Library System is sponsoring a community viewing of it under the stars at Mary Vinson Library. Inside, at Allen’s Market, there will be Slam Poetry based on original work inspired by the book.

We commend the planning committee for its work. Not only Georgia College & State University’s Department of English, Speech & Journalism and its Library and Information Technology Center but also the City of Milledgeville, Allied Arts, Andalusia, the Chamber of Commerce, Twin Pines Library System, Sweetwater Festival, Georgia College Early College, Art as an Agent for Change, and the Bill Ireland Youth Development Campus are all on board.

Milledgeville is known for its book clubs, prior community reading program, and Learning in Retirement programs. What organizers need now are additional partners. They need us. Every reader of this newspaper is in a position to reach out to a reluctant or lapsed reader. If you lead a book club, the organizers want to hear from you. If you are an educator who would like to include “A Lesson Before Dying” in your classroom, the organizers want to hear from you. If you are a business owner willing to make readers’ guides available to your patrons, the organizers want to hear from you. They need all of us to make The Big Read a success for our community.

The fact that you are reading this editorial qualifies you to change the life of someone who is not. When all of us are reading the same book during the same month, we’ve got things to discuss — at the barber shop, the grocery store, after church and around our supper tables.

If you’ve already read “A Lesson Before Dying,” you know it’s a serious book about human identity and dignity. It is worthy of our investment. To learn more, visit www.neabigread.org. After Aug. 1, you’ll find Milledgeville on The Big Read map. To volunteer, ask for programming or pass along ideas, call (478) 445-4581 or e-mail ENGL@gcsu.edu.

The Big Read this October in Milledgeville has a place for each of us. Save that place for yourself for October and, meanwhile, get out and use our parks. The more we use our resources, the more we’ll grow them. Funding agencies look at the numbers; we look at our people and see the differences these dollars can make.