Page 12 - Athens NCG 2024

Creature Comforts Brewing Co.
inspires young kids to love to read In
partnership with the Books for Keeps
Storytellers Literacy Mentor Program.

“We are as intentional about community impact as we
are in market development,” said Fenwick Broyard, Vice
President of Brand Impact at Creature Comforts, as he
described how the company invited advisors to guide
them in philanthropy, choosing early literacy as their pilot
program in Athens. The initiative is called Get Comfortable.
Why literacy? Because it is fundamental to a child’s
successful future. Creature Comforts cites the challenges
in their Get Comfortable initiative for early literacy:
• Third grade is when students go from ‘learning to read’
to ‘reading to learn.’
• In 2021 when they began, 20% of Clarke County third
graders were reading at grade level. Their goal is to
move this to 60% proficiency and higher.
• A non-proficient reader in third grade is unlikely to
graduate high school, leading to disruptive challenges
Legacy “We’re thinking of our giving as an investment, not a
personally, and affecting a community’s longer-term
fiscal health.

write-off,” said Broyard. “We have a vested interest in the
health of this community.”
is
The mission of Get Comfortable is to channel the
generosity of many toward the greatest local needs.
Brewing They formed an advisory council of social services
professionals who who, in collaboration with the Clarke
County School District, help them focus on third-grade
reading proficiency with the aim of achieving measurable
impacts, and happy readers.
The pilot program at Howard B. Stroud Elementary

By Lydia Cobb School is made possible by the brewery’s nonprofit partner

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years
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8 Athens Area Chamber of Commerce • www.athensga.com • 706-549-6800