ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The Orange Beach Public Library has announced its participation with the National Endowment for the Art’s (NEA) Big Read for the Florida panhandle.

NEA included Pensacola among 208 libraries, municipalities, arts, culture and science organizations across the nation receiving grants totaling $2,810,500 to host Big Read celebrations between September 2008 and June 2009.

This month, all Baldwin County libraries, along with those in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida, are invited to join numerous free public events starting with a Big Read Kick-Off Celebration at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Pensacola on Saturday, from 2-5 p.m.

The Big Read brings communities together to read, discuss and celebrate a famous work of American or world literature. The 2008-2009 Big Read grantees represent 46 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with Pensacola now representing the Florida panhandle.

The West Florida Literary Federation (WFLF), a local non-profit dedicated to promoting local writers and the love of literature as a means for promoting literacy has received a $10,000 grant to promote across the community Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill A Mockingbird (TKM).

The Orange Beach Public Library was also invited to participate in NEA’s Big Read.  Bonnie Lee noted that “this is a real honor for us, and it will be good practice run for the 2010 Alabama Big Read.”

The Alabama Public Library Service in Montgomery has also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the entire state will be reading one book together.

The WFLF and grant partners Pensacola Little Theatre (PLT) and the West Florida Public Library have declared March “Mockingbird Month.”

Pensacola and surrounding communities are invited to the Big Read Kick-Off Celebration at Barnes & Noble Booksellers with special guests Mayor Mike Wiggins, Commissioner Marie Young and NAS Capt. Patrick J. Dougherty, Commanding Officer, Naval Aviation Schools Command.

The Big Read Kick-Off Celebration will include live “Mockingbird” performances by PLT actors, a “Mockingbird” trivia contest, “Mockingbird” origami and a costume contest based on characters from the famous novel, movie and play.

The Orange Beach Public Library will facilitate this community-based reading program with a book discussion on March 10 at 3, and will host a showing and discussion of the movie on March 19 at 5:15.

Both events will be held at the library and are free to the public.

Also, free-of-charge educational materials to supplement each event, including Reader’s, Teacher’s, and Audio Guides for To Kill a Mockingbird in English and Spanish are available at the library.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

“Everything the NEA does we do in partnership. I am delighted to announce our 208 new partners in The Big Read. Some are new to the program (like Pensacola and Orange Beach), some are returning, but all of them have answered the call to action to get our country reading again,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia.

“With this latest round of grants, I am proud to say that The Big Read has supported more than 500 public library partnerships,” said Anne-Imelda M. Radice, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the NEA’s lead federal partner for The Big Read. “Through this program, public libraries continue to demonstrate their value in communities as centers of engagement, literacy, and lifelong learning. I am particularly delighted by the innovative public programming born out of library and museum collaborations.”

The WFLF joins the PLT, the West Florida Public Library and Friends of the Pensacola Library and special partner, the Orange Beach Public Library, to host the following events.

For more information, call the Orange Beach Public Library at (251) 981-2923.