Bruce Mack said he has seen dramatic changes in people’s awareness of literacy over the last decade.
“Over the years as we’ve done our Reach-a-Reader campaign, people have gone from not knowing what we were raising awareness about, to seeing us from a block away and hailing us down to purchase a newspaper to help the cause.”
Mack, president for the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy, invited mayor and council Tuesday evening to help with the campaign, which takes place on Jan. 24.
Highlighting some of the programs CCPL delivered in 2012, he said over 8,400 books were distributed through the Bright Red Bookshelves program, and high school wood working students build bookshelves to augment the program, he added.
Through the Books for Babies program, fully funded by the Kiwanis Club, every new baby receives a bag with four books.
“The financial literacy program we ran for two years was a huge success. The funding for it has run out, but we developed the program and are going to continue with it,” Mack said, adding the need for it was tremendous.
The Assisted Literacy program presently has 48 tutors working with 130 individuals providing one-on-one help, and more recently, computer literacy has been implemented as well.
On behalf of council Mayor Kerry Cook thanked Mack and the group for their efforts, and after his presentation, council proclaimed Family Literacy Week Jan. 20 - 26 in the city of Williams Lake.
Mack presented council a copy of the literacy plan CCPL has developed in partnership with School District #27.