Edmunds County Tribune -

The Stephanie Miller-Davis Library Summer Reading Grant Program is now in its fifth year of supporting summer reading programs in small rural communities in partnership with the South Dakota Community Foundation (SDCF) and the South Dakota State Library (SDSL). The program to date has distributed nearly $200,000 to libraries in rural communities across South Dakota.

Stephanie loved books. She started her legacy by donating children’s books and bookcases to the school library in her hometown of Murdo. She wanted to provide the children in the community the books she longed to read as a child growing up on the South Dakota prairie.

“My mother would be so excited to see the impact this money is having on so many kid’s lives,” said Stephanie’s daughter Kate Davis. “Access to books was a passion of hers and she would have loved to support the work of so many parents, teachers, librarians, and other community members in towns across South Dakota,” added her daughter Anne Franz.

“The South Dakota Community Foundation is proud to partner with the Stephanie Miller-Davis family as they perpetuate their mother’s passion and investment in early childhood literacy across South Dakota,” said Jeff Veltkamp, SDCF Director of Development. “I think Stephanie would be very proud to see her daughters continuing her investment in children.”

SDCF works to support philanthropy in South Dakota by connecting donors with causes they care about and providing expertise in managing charitable funds. SDCF administers over 1,200 funds benefiting thousands of wonderful causes every year. To learn more about charitable opportunities through SDCF, visit SDCommunityFoundation.org or call 800.888.1842.

The South Dakota State Library (SDSL) is a division of the South Dakota Department of Education. The State Library supports local libraries and works to build capacity within the state’s public and school libraries, which successfully reached the goal of 100,000 South Dakota children participating in summer reading programs in 2021. The State Library encourages families to visit their local library, get involved in events and activities and keep growing readers. To learn more, visit https://library.sd.gov/.

The M.P. Beebe Memorial Library in Ipswich is among the libraries awarded $1,500 to support their summer reading program.