Members of the Blue Earth Area Middle School and Elementary School student councils pose with the Dollar General staff from the Blue Earth store and from Dollar General corporate staff, above. Upper left photo, BEA principal Melissa McGuire accepts the checks from Dollar General reps, left to right, DeAnn Anderson, Tim Ahrendsen, Jodell Oelke, Shasta Gutierrez, Shantille Edgington and Brandon LaMoyne. In the upper right photo members of the student council give high-fives to the Dollar General employees as they head to class.

Just in time for Christmas, the Blue Earth Area Schools received a very nice present last week.

On Tuesday morning, representatives from the local Dollar General store in Blue Earth, and the Dollar General corporate staff, stopped by the BEA Elementary School with a couple of checks.

They presented both the BEA Elementary/Middle School and the BEA High School with a gift of $5,000 each, for a total of $10,000.

“It is part of our company’s ’12 Days of Giving’ campaign,” said Shantille Edgington, the manager of the Blue Earth store. “It is part of our commitment to serving others.”

The money came from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, and is meant to go towards supporting literacy and libraries at the schools.

The Literacy Foundation is celebrating 25 years, and since its inception in the beginning of 1993, the foundation has donated more than $160 million towards literacy efforts that have helped more than 10 million individuals.

“Our store was chosen because we are one of the top performing stores in the country this year,” Edgington said. “That is because of Walmart closing, of course, but also because of the strong local support we have. I want to thank all our customers for their continuous support.”

Receiving the surprise donation was middle and elementary principal Melissa McGuire, along with all of the student council representatives in the elementary and middle school grades.

McGuire expressed deep appreciation for the gift.

“This is a fantastic gift,” McGuire said. “We are all so very appreciative of the wonderful generosity of Dollar General to our schools.”

Besides Edgington, several of her staff persons from the local store were along to help make the presentation. They were Jodell Oelke, Brandon LaMoyne and Shasta Gutierrez.

Also present were Dollar General corporate reps Tim Ahrendsen (regional manager) and DeAnn Anderson (district manager).

“This is one of the ways we try and give back to the communities where we have stores,” Anderson said. “We want to help the communities our stores call home, and our community outreach centers around literacy and education.”

According to figures from last month, Dollar General operates 15,227 stores in 44 states.

Edgington also thanked her staff for all their hard work which helped make this all possible.

“It has been a long hard year, but also one I am proud of,” she said. “Thank you to everyone that made this possible.”

Her thanks also went to some of the staff from the Winnebago Dollar General store, who came to Blue Earth and manned this store so she and her staff could all attend the big announcement presentation.

The program ended with McGuire promising to keep the Dollar General staff informed of exactly how their gift will be spent.

And, with all the students high-fiving the Dollar General representatives on their way back to class, it was definitely a Good News day at the BEA Schools.