There will be groups of orange-clad volunteers located at strategic spots throughout Prince George this morning between 7 and 9 a.m. as Raise-A-Reader once again collects funds for literacy programs in Prince George.
Residents who visit any McDonald's, Ritual Coffee, Books & Co., Denny's, Zoe's, the College of New Caledonia, UNBC or the Telus office on Sixth Avenue, will have the opportunity to donate to the literacy cause as volunteers offer The Citizen newspaper.
Marnie Alexander, community coordinator at Harwin Elementary School, said not only are the students recipients of grants from Raise-A-Reader, they have volunteered on Raise-A-Reader day for the last eight or nine years, as well. Alexander and 14 students and their families can be found at the 15th Avenue McDonald's and Starbuck's bright and early this morning.
MLA Shirley Bond is a perennial volunteer who helps promote literacy in the province.
"I am always so impressed to see students from Harwin Elementary as part of the Raise-A-Reader team," Bond said.
"They bring so much energy and make it a really fun morning. What a great way for them to learn firsthand about giving back to the community. We hope lots of people will come by and make a donation and let the students know how much their volunteering means."
Bond will be volunteering with the Harwin students because she knows how important these literacy programs are to everyone.
"I try to participate in the Raise-A-Reader fundraising event every year whether I am in Prince George or working somewhere else in the province," Bond said.
"I love to read and I can't imagine what it would be like to struggle reading a bus schedule or your prescription. By supporting the Raise-A-Reader program it means extra support for literacy programs and supporting children and families who may need some extra help."
Harwin has been the recipient of numerous grants from Raise-A-Reader and last year Harwin Elementary received a $2,500 grant, Alexander said.
"The grant went in part to our Read and Run to the Sun program," Alexander said. "The kids were raising money to go to the Vancouver Sun Run (10 km run) so it was a literacy and fitness based program."
Children had to read 1,500 age-appropriate pages from teacher-approved material to reflect how many kilometres Prince George is from Vancouver and back. The children had to provide a variety of projects about what they read, including book reports and dioramas.
The children also participated in a running program three to four days a week from September to April.
"It was a cool program," Alexander said.
"It was a pilot project and it went really, really well."
There were 20 students from Harwin and 20 students from Spruceland Elementary who went on the trip.
Part of the grant also went to a Dr. Seuss-themed literacy week at the school, which hosted a book fair that included all the students.
Part of the literacy week was a reading challenge where each student could read with a family member for 20 minutes a night, bring back the form once the challenge was met and there was a prize drawn where the winner got an iPad.
"We had great involvement in that and during Literacy Week we had guest authors come into the school to read to the children," Alexander said about the annual event.
It's important for the children to participate in the Raise-A-Reader fundraiser, she added.
"Even if we don't apply for grants we promote literacy and volunteerism," Alexander said.
"I think it's really, really rewarding for our kids and it's important to give back because we've always had a ton of community support for everything we do in our school. So I think it's really important for the kids to give back."
For those who can't attend the locations where fundraisers will be, there's still a chance to make donations online at raiseareader.com/donate.
