The Prince George Public Library is proud of our involvement with the Raise-a-Reader campaign in Prince George. In partnership with the Prince George Citizen, we've amassed a team of more than 85 volunteers from organizations throughout the community. You'll find them at 17 locations today where they'll focus attention on the importance of literacy to children and their families.
The Raise a Reader campaign is held annually in September, which is Literacy Month in British Columbia.
As communities throughout the province issued official proclamations, our provincial literacy organization noted the sobering statistic that 45 per cent of British Columbians between 16 and 65 have literacy challenges that cause difficulty in accomplishing some of their daily living tasks.
Today's campaign raises funds to distribute to local organizations that will provide a variety of programs and resources to support early literacy for our children right here in Prince George. By supporting early literacy, we work towards reducing the number of adults whose quality of life is impacted by literacy challenges.
Learning to read begins at birth. Reading, rhyming, singing and talking profoundly influences literacy and language development in young children, which sets the foundation for all other learning. Ninety per cent of children's critical brain development occurs by age five. Those children who are read to, sung to and talked to from a young age develop bigger vocabularies, become better readers, and are more likely to succeed in school.
The Canadian Pediatric Society now recognizes low literacy as an important issue affecting the health of millions of Canadians. The society encourages physicians to address low literacy as a child health problem beginning at birth and continuing through adulthood. In a report entitled Read, Speak, Sing: Promoting Literacy in the Physician's Office, the society recommends that doctors assess early literacy at office visits and encourage families to get a library card and visit the library regularly. Besides a vast selection of board books, picture books and early readers, the library regularly provides Baby Time, Toddler Time, Preschool and Family Story Times to model and encourage those positive language interactions between caregivers and young children.
Libraries, preschools, child care centres, schools, community centres and many other Prince George organizations apply every year to use the funds raised during the Raise a Reader campaign to develop projects that encourage early literacy. Examples include Books for Babies, where the library distributes a bag containing board books and a CD of songs and rhymes to every baby born at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.
The YMCA of Northern BC used their funds to create the Neighbourhood Scholars project, which focused on preparing preschoolers for kindergarten.
Last year, Raise-a-Reader raised and distributed more than $35,000 in grants to 23 organizations. These include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince George, Blackburn elementary, CNIB, Ecole College Heights, Ecole Foothills elementary, Heather Park elementary, IMSS, Learning Differences Centre, Northern BC Children and Families Hearing Society, Nukko Lake elementary, Prince George Native Friendship Centre, Prince George Public Library, Prince George Community Arts Council, Quinson elementary, Ron Brent Elementary, Sacred Heart elementary, Southridge Elementary, Spruceland Traditional School, St. Mary's School, Polaris Montessori School, Learning Differences Centre, UNBC - Active Minds and the YMCA of Northern B.C.
Thank you to everyone who raided their car ashtrays, dug through their pockets and opened their wallets to hand over their change and bills to the volunteers wearing their bright orange shirts this morning. Thank you to the volunteers who posted themselves at community locations before 7 a.m. to hawk newspapers in exchange for donations.
And thank you to the corporate sponsors for this campaign who recognize the impact that literacy has on our community.
The Prince George Citizen, in particular, has demonstrated excellent corporate citizenship by partnering with the library for many years on this campaign. It may take a community to raise a child, but it also takes a community to raise a reader.
-- Chief librarian Janet Marren,
Prince George Public Library
