CULLMAN, Ala. – The Link of Cullman County hosted its annual Links for Literacy Golf Tournament at Terri Pines Monday and 100-plus players came out on a beautiful day to compete and support a great cause. The tournament helps fund several of The Link’s educational programs and Executive Director Melissa Betts was excited to see a good crowd on hand at the course to support the organization.
“With this event we really focus in on all our literacy and educational programs that we offer at The Link and those would be things like all the summer camps we have coming up. We offer Kindergarten readiness camps for students that are getting ready to go into kindergarten and those are at seven locations across the county,” Betts said. “So, if you’ve got one going into kindergarten, check in with their school and we’ll be up there trying to get them registered for that summer camp. We have summer enrichment and an ESL (English as a Second Language) class that has just recently relaunched after Covid and thankfully we had a partnership with Wallace State Community College that helped us with that relaunch. The classes are full so we’re looking to add additional classes for that.”
Not all of The Link’s programs are funded through grants so Betts and the organization is grateful to receive local support.
“We also offer Wise Up, which is a financial literacy class in our county high schools 9-12 grade. They’re able to learn things about how to handle money and how to stay out of credit card debt and some of those basic things that we want students to know by the time they’re leaving high school and entering adulthood,” Betts said. “This tournament helps us sponsor all of those programs. We use the proceeds from this tournament to help make all of those services free for our neighbors. Some of our other programs have grunt funding but these particular programs do not so its really important that the community becomes aware of what we offer and come out to support us.”
The tournament featured three Hole in One Sponsors this year: $25,000 cash from Farmers Insurance – Jim McDonald Agency, $10,000 cash from Mitch Smith Chevrolet and a $10,000 Sandals trip provided by Main Street & More Travel – Sandy Herren.
The Link’s educational services include:
- Volunteers in Public Schools (mentors paired with students K-middle school)
- After-school Tutoring and Adult Literacy Tutoring
- English as a Second Language, 2023 grant funded by Wallace State Community College Adult Education Department
- Summer Camps: Summer Enrichment (rising first-eighth graders) and Kindergarten Readiness (seven sites hosted around the county)
- Wise Up Financial Literacy for ninth and 12th graders, taught in six Cullman County high schools by facilitators
For more information on registering for literacy offerings through The Link, contact Dakota Trammell at dakotatrammell@linkingcullman.org.
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