FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cape Coral - Lee County Library Patron Wins World Series Trip

FORT MYERS, Fla., October 26, 2004

A Cape Coral man will be a VIP guest at tonight's world series game after winning a nation-wide library contest.

James Dinkins, age 58, of Cape Coral was the grand prize winner in the American Library Association's (ALA) Join the Major Leagues @ your library trivia contest. He will be attending tonight's World Series game in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox.

Dinkins picked up a copy of the program playbook from the Cape Coral - Lee County Public Library and completed a series of baseball-related questions designed to test players' information literacy skills.

Sharon Robinson, daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, drew Dinkins' name from more than 1,500 library patrons nation-wide who completed playbooks. Dinkins received two tickets to tonight's game.

A pre-game announcement will be made tonight at the stadium.

In addition to the grand-prize winner , Lee County Library System also had one of the 12 national first-prize winners. Drew Leitman, 45, of Cape Coral will receive a copy of "Jackie’s Nine" by Sharon Robinson, a Join the Major Leagues @ your library T-shirt and an ALA READ poster featuring Jackie Robinson.

The drawings were held at Major League Baseball offices in New York City.

The "Join the Major Leagues @ your library" program is designed to test players' information literacy skills by challenging them to answer questions like "What player holds the big league record with 4,256 hits?" or "The designated hitter made its first appearance in the major leagues in what year?"

This new program is designed to help children and adults build their 21st century information literacy skills and better understand how libraries and librarians can help them. The program ran June 1st through September 10, 2004 at all Lee County Library System locations.

More information on the program is available at www.ala.org/@yourlibrary/jointhemajorleagues .

Other events were also held throughout the summer to support Join the Major Leagues @ your library. Children age 12 and under received free tickets to Fort Myers Miracle "Books and Bats" games by completing a Miracle "Books and Bats" reading log and redeeming it at a participating Pizza Hut.

The Lee County Library System attended these "Books and Bats" games at the Lee County Sports Complex and visitors to the LCLS table could show their library cards to receive a special prize.

Fort Myers Miracle Baseball Team mascot and Miracle players also participated at special programs at Lee County Library System locations.

Karen Scholz, Library Development Specialist
Lee County Library System
kscholz@leegov.com
Phone 239.461.2914
Cellular 239.850.2055

Heather O'Connell
Community Relations Coordinator
Lee County Library System
hoconnell@leegov.com
Phone: (239) 461-2924