Gerstacker Foundation Awards $5,000 to the Michigan Humanities Council for The Great Michigan Read

(LANSING)----The Michigan Humanities Council (MHC) announces it is the recipient of a $5,000 award from the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation to help support The Great Michigan Read. The Great Michigan Read is a statewide literary reading initiative to engage all Michiganians with reading The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway. The Nick Adams Stories is a coming of age tale inspired by the author’s boyhood experiences in Northern Michigan.

“The Michigan Humanities Council is thankful for the support from the Gerstacker Foundation to help provide Great Michigan Read programs and materials to Michiganians across the state,” said Janice Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council.

The MHC is the first organization to implement a program for an entire state to read one of Hemingway’s works. To date, 150 cultural organizations in 126 communities across Michigan are participating in The Great Michigan Read. The MHC welcomes other organizations to join the program and participate at anytime until July 2008. Reader’s guides, bookmarks, posters, and other resources are available to participating organizations. Additional resources include radio and television features, podcasts, speakers bureau, driving tours, website (www.greatmichiganread.org), and grant programs to help engage communities in reading and rediscovering literature. A pair of touring exhibits, Up North with the Hemingways, will visit 28 sites in Michigan through July 7, 2008. The exhibits are currently at the Colon Township Library (though October 8) and at the Munising School Public Library (through October 15). Dozens more community events for The Great Michigan Read are currently scheduled on the events listing at www.greatmichiganread.org.

More information is available at www.greatmichiganread.org or by contacting the MHC at 517-372-7770. The Michigan Humanities Council, founded in 1974, is the state’s independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation was founded by Mrs. Eda U. Gerstacker in 1957 in memory of her husband. It is based in Midland, Michigan.

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