Ardmore High School receives $40K gift from Dollar General

ARDMORE, Ala. (WHNT) – A local business with plans to do something special at Ardmore High School finally made it happen Wednesday. These special plans took everyone by surprise, even the school's principal.

"I got a phone call about a month ago, excuse me about two weeks ago, that just says, said that we want to come and give you a surprise for your school," Ardmore High School Principal Tommy Hunter explained during a staff meeting Wednesday afternoon. That's how it started, and that was about all that Hunter, or anyone else for that matter, knew. And so when the corporate folks from Dollar General showed up at the school, Hunter says he still didn't know what to expect.

"And so I open it up and, and I don't even want to know what my face looked like when I saw it because neatly placed down in there is a cardboard check for $40,000," Hunter said.

A $40,000 corporate gift with no strings attached for the school to use to promote literacy.

A release from the company says Ardmore High School was chosen because of this community's support of their efforts to fight illiteracy.

Dora Watson says she always donates her change when she shops at the Dollar General Market in Ardmore, and her cashier, Leann Shannon says many of her customers do the same thing, every visit.

"We could buy books and stuff with that and it would really go towards our education and it would be really great," says 9th grader Allie Clark when told of the donation.

"We're just extremely grateful. There's not words to express our gratitude to them because they absolutely did not have to do this," Hunter says.

But they did, and all from a little cup filled with nickels and dimes beside the register at Dollar General stores. Giving back to the communities that support them, and making a difference in the lives of many.

Hunter says they will form a committee to determine the best use of the money, and look for ways to make certain it has the greatest impact possible.


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