Actress Jennifer Garner visits Happy, Ky., says children in state have ‘heart and grit.’

Actress Jennifer Garner read to school children in Perry County this week during a visit on behalf of the Save the Children organization and in a speech at the General Assembly, said Kentucky kids have “heart and grit.”

Perry County Superintendent Jonathan Jett told the Herald-Leader he was struck by the concern shown by Garner and Mark Shriver, president of Save the Children Action Network and the nephew of the 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during their visit to R. W. Combs Elementary School in a small community named Happy.

Jett said the two representatives of the organization were “genuinely interested” in how the school was using resources from Save the Children for programs that range from reading to exercise.

Jett said the estimated $1. 2 million that Perry County Schools receives annually from Save the Children, “is huge” in helping kids who enter kindergarten without the benefit of preschool, Head Start, or emphasis on learning in the home.

“It’s a great opportunity to catch those kids up,” he said.

Garner told members of Kentucky’s state Senate this week that Save the Children’s most robust programs were in Kentucky and that children in the state were “eager to learn.”

Garner, who has visited Kentucky on behalf of Save the Children in the past, said the organization employs 500 people in Kentucky and is serving 27,500 children in the state this year.

The General Assembly typically provides a little more than $1 million annually to the organization. Garner said Save the Children, with in-kind and private money, brings $12.5 dollars to Kentucky for every dollar provided by the General Assembly.

“We try to make the most,” Garner said, of everything the General Assembly gives the organization.