Coweta first grader Maddox Tomlinson was awarded $1,529 for his college savings as one of four regional winners in the Path2College 529 Plan’s Summer Reading Program Sweepstakes—Fizz•Boom, $ave for College.
The Coweta County Public Library also received $529 as part of the sweepstakes.
“College savings are important to our family because we don’t want our boys swamped with student loans to pay after college. We hope to help them out as much as we can,” said Audrey Tomlinson, Maddox’s mother. “This is an amazing opportunity to start building up that college fund! We are very excited!”
Mitch Seabaugh, executive director of the Path2College 529 Plan, said that the sweepstakes was designed to encourage children to continue to read throughout the summer and to get parents and grandparents thinking about their children’s academic futures and how to plan for their educational needs.
“Continued education after high school is essential for today’s kids, and we hope that parents will think about this cost and begin saving early and regularly to help them achieve their goals,” said Seabaugh. “This partnership is designed to get families engaged in their kids’ education and to raise awareness about the need to build both a strong academic and financial foundation for children.”
This is the fifth year for the Summer Reading Program Sweepstakes in Georgia. Nearly $33,000 has been awarded to Georgia children and more than $23,000 has been awarded to libraries across the state through the program.
“In an effort to reach even more families this year, for the first time, we had four regional winners in addition to our grand prize winner,” said Seabaugh. “It was a great way for us to reward children in every region of the state for their summer reading, while also raising awareness about college savings with their parents and grandparents.”
More than 481,000 children and teens across the state participated in the Summer Reading Program in 2013.
“Georgia Public Library Service’s partnership with the Path2College 529 Plan’s summer reading sweepstakes reinforces two of our top goals for students and parents throughout the state: the importance of summer reading and of saving for college,” said Julie Walker, state librarian. “As Georgia’s public libraries embark on an exciting new initiative to promote early literacy by encouraging children to read 1,000 books before kindergarten, we welcome every opportunity to promote the love of reading. Congratulations to the winners of this year’s sweepstakes — what a wonderful way to jumpstart their educational journey!”
Library Director Jimmy Bass said, “We had thousands of children, teens and adults participate in our Summer program, which focused on reading and education. I am very happy that we can reward Maddox, our 529 winner, and our other customers by spending the library’s check in the best way possible. All of it will go to further enhance our youth services collection so our community’s young people can continue to flourish as students and winners in the battle for literacy. We greatly appreciate the folks at the Path2College for the partnership and the chance to honor readers.”
