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Program helps out school libraries
A national program that encourages reading is a getting a thumbs-up from a local elementary school principal.
The Indigo Adopt A School program helps customers and communities to raise money to put more books into elementary school libraries across Canada. So far the program, run by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, has provided $23 million for school libraries and this year, Coxheath Elementary, Sydney River Elementary and Cape Smokey Elementary are involved. For Coxheath Elementary principal Trevor LeBlanc, the program is good for everyone.
“It’s a wonderful program and we’re happy to be part of it,” said LeBlanc. “If we can teach our children to love reading again, it helps literacy and self-confidence and you’ll see that improvement in their academic success.”
The program takes place over three weeks. You can go online (https://adoptaschool. indigo.ca/eng/schools), find the school you want to help, and donate. If you give two books ($20) to a participating school, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation will match one book ($10) for that school, with up to 40 books through the program’s book bonus. If you want to share a story, you can tell a story on the participating school’s profile page and the story could be chosen to add another book to that school’s library. So far, about 24 books have been donated to Sydney River Elementary, three to Cape Smokey Elementary and six to Coxheath Elementary. LeBlanc said Coxheath Elementary has 285 children who use the school’s library but many of its books are worn out and need replacing. As well, there are new books that students want and LeBlanc wants to encourage that demand.
“Some books can be very expensive and some of our students might not have that same opportunity as another child to read the latest book that may be out there,” said LeBlanc. “This library, the school library, is a safe place that they can sign out that book and they get a chance to read the same novels as everyone else.”
In addition to encouraging students to read, LeBlanc says it will help with the students’ future development.
“It brings that attention back to a library that sometimes is hard to do in this age of social media. We don’t have cell phones or anything else in those libraries. We just have lots of books and that’s what’s important. We think this is a great idea that Indigo has come up with and it’s a great partnership.
“We’re really happy that we were included.”