Group receives $25,000 donation

Trident Literacy Association has received another major gift to support the continued operation of its downtown site.

Harriet Rigney, fund establisher of the James O. and Harriet P. Rigney Endowment of Coastal Community Foundation, made a donor-advised recommendation to grant $25,000 to Trident Literacy Association.

The association announced plans last week to close its downtown site after a drop in state funding and donations, and the community responded with enough money to enable the downtown branch to remain open. The Gilbreth Family Fund gave $100,000, and The Post and Courier Foundation contributed $25,000.

Trident Literacy Association Executive Director Eileen Chepenik said the nonprofit has received an estimated $500 to $1,000 per day from dozens of generous individuals. The association took a risk in opening the downtown site four years ago, and she's proud that it has survived this long. She'd like for it to remain open because there's no other site like it downtown, and she said the nonprofit needs continued support from the public.

"We have to raise a lot of money because we don't know what the economy is going to do," Chepenik said. "This will initially get us over the hump for the next fiscal year, but we have to keep aggressively fundraising and paring down our costs in order to survive."

First Federal and a coalition of businesses launched Operation Open Book, a fund to which community members can make donations to the literacy association to meet its immediate fundraising goal of $200,000.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.