The Lafayette County Literacy Council does quiet, but important, work in our community.

With the mission to “improve the quality of life in Oxford and Lafayette County through literacy and reading” the council reaches both adults and children to make sure more people have opportunity through basic education.

It’s hard to get a job if you can’t read well enough to fill out an application and the Literacy Council says more than 20 percent of adults in Lafayette County struggle with that problem.

That’s why they start reaching children in our community early. The upcoming effort to make sure every first grader in Lafayette County will get a free copy of the book “If I Built A Car,” by Chris Van Dusen is a good example.

That’s no small endeavor, getting a quality book to every first grader in the county, and we appreciate the Lafayette County Literacy Council’s efforts.

Part of the Children’s Book Festival, which runs concurrently with the popular Oxford Conference for the Book, the effort to get first graders in Lafayette County excited about reading is something that gets us excited as well.

Congratulations to the Lafayette County Literacy Council on its hard work and worthy efforts.