Erin Linnon skirted a number of the 249 other guests inside Butler County Community College’s Founders Hall as she meandered through 36 decorated tables, halting at as many as she could to lift her brown-cased cell phone to near eye level and to take photographs of the Luncheon for Literacy centerpieces celebrating favored books or characters.

“The tables,” said Linnon of Meridian, “are so creative. I don’t know how the people do this.”

The people who represented the largest crowd to attend a Rotary Club of Butler Luncheon for Literacy Sunday adorned tables and helped to raise an estimated $12,000 to benefit BC3’s adult literacy program, which has helped 454 students to earn high school equivalency diplomas since 2008.

Proceeds raised from the Luncheon for Literacy benefit BC3’s adult literacy program, which also provides free classes to students in English as a second language, essential skills, personal finance, computer literacy, career exploration and preparation, according to Barb Gade, director of BC3’s adult literacy program.

Luncheon for Literacy funds help to promote student success, and to cover the $7 cost of each of four high school equivalency diploma practice exams — in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies — and the $30 cost of official tests that, if passed, result in a diploma issued by the state’s Department of Education, Gade said.

The 2020 Luncheon for Literacy increased the Rotary Club of Butler PM’s contribution to BC3’s program to $32,000.

William Foley is the coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.