Community leaders, volunteers and team members of the Border Bruins will join Black Press and the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy on Oct. 8 to raise awareness about the importance of literacy and to celebrate the power literacy has in Grand Forks.
The 4th Annual Reach a Reader campaign will raise funds for Grand Forks community-based literacy programs.
Why? Literacy is important to all British Columbians! It impacts every aspect of our lives: health care, crime rates, employment and economic status. Despite its essential role in life, at least 40 per cent of B.C. adults have difficulty reading a newspaper, filling out a work application, reading a map, or understanding a lease—and this percentage is increasing.
“The Reach a Reader campaign reminds people that literacy skills are important if we are to succeed in today’s world,” said Sheila Dobie, Boundary community literacy coordinator. “When we hear the word literacy, many of us think 'you can read or you can't read.’ Of course, literacy is about reading and writing, but it is also about the ability to express our ideas, think critically, and use technology. Literacy is wide and all-encompassing. Literacy is having the skills you need, to do what you want to do in your life.”
In Grand Forks, funds will help support family literacy programs in the Boundary. These programs bring important early years’ activities that promote language development, physical activities and healthy living to families—all ways to ensure a culture of learning throughout a family’s life.
You can support the Reach a Reader campaign by making a donation in exchange for a special edition of the Grand Forks Gazette on Oct. 8. Volunteers will be hitting the streets with papers in hand at Overwaitea, at the Boundary Mall in front of RHC Insurance, and in front of the Gazette office between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. You may also donate online at cbal.org.
To learn more about community-based literacy programs in Grand Forks, contact Dobie at sdobie@cbal.org.