Literacy, Speaking
Heather Reisman’s company foundation helps children to hit the books
SOME SMALL MOMENTS are so special they stick in the brain like a tattoo on a brawny arm. Merril Dean still savours the memory of a Grade 4classroom and a little boy, eyes shining in excitement, holding up a book for her to see. “I am going to learn to read because I have to read this book, Miss Dean,” he said earnestly. It was 2007, and Dean, the principal at Weledeh Catholic School in Yellowknife. He had been diagnosed with a disability in reading but seemed unusually determined. That new book had fired his imagination.
In fact, a wave of colourful new books had engulfed the school, thanks to a jaw-dropping grant of $150,000 from the then three-year-old Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. It was inspired in 2003, when Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo Books & Music, witnessed the effect of education budgets that funded on average one-third of a book per child annually instead of the three allocated in 1970.
Reisman, Indigo’s “chief booklover” notes, “All the emerging brain research says the younger you develop word acquisition, the sooner you read – and the greater your lifelong literacy.” And Statistics Canada reports that thriving in a complex global economy demands sound literacy skills. “To not focus on literacy and say this is a priority – it’s unbelievable,” Reisman declares. She’s clear about her own stand: “First and foremost is my commitment to literacy.”
The businesswoman and her husband Gerry Schwartz, CEO of Onex Corp., practise philanthropy on a grand scale, with multimillion-dollar bestowals that include supporting the state of Israel and Jewish causes in Canada, fighting anti-Semitism and abuse of women and children. Recently, they brought to $28 million their contributions to transform the emergency department of Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Another $2 million benefited the Toronto International Film Fesitval for projects such as film preservation.
Reisman also advocates for other causes that interest her. She had sweets relocated from her stores’ checkouts after co-executive producing Fed Up, a film narrated by Katie Couric that decries the sugar we consume in processed foods. “I feel beyond fortunate to be in a position where people call. On small things, I try my best to say yes,” she says.
In 2003, Reisman acted when her Toronto alderman asked for books for a downtown school. In Church Street Junior Public School’s library, she found tattered old books shelved in cardboard boxes and learned teachers often paid for classroom reading material. “I thought how fortunate many of us are – we grew up with books in our schools, our libraries. Something just touched me,” she recalls.
The school soon became the pilot for Indigo’s reading foundation. Principal Judy Gillis, some 20 jubilant students and the teacherlibrarian were given carte blanche at Indigo’s flagship store to choose books. “As with any decision to give back, whether someone does it with time or money, it always ends up being hugely enriching to the person doing it,” Reisman smiles. Or “persons,” since Indigo, Chapters and Coles Books employees got involved when the company created the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation in 2004 to raise literacy levels among children at poorly resourced elementary schools. This interest is “one of the highest engagement factors at the company,” she says. The foundation has since donated more than $17 million to 1,600 elementary schools, adding more than 1.5 million books to classrooms and libraries. Grants from $30,000 to $195,000 fund up to 20 schools annually. “It’s transformative to the school,” she says.
For three successive years, Weledeh, Dean’s school in the far north, re- ceived $45,000 to buy books – usually through www.Chapters.Indigo.ca – plus $5,000 in cash for anything that promoted literacy. DVDs, CDs, games and puppets meant indoor activities in English, French and T’licho (the cultural language of Dene students) during -30 C winter days. Dean sees it all in use when she visits Weledeh as students’ services co-ordinator for Yellowknife Catholic Schools. “The [grant] was the focus that helped start that school on a journey. It really has continued in terms of literacy growth for the students,” she says.
Before school ends in June, anxious principals and teachers usually learn of their application’s success when Reisman calls. Her Indigo home office audience never tires of their elated and relieved responses – happy tears are inevitable on both ends of the wire. (To experience, bring tissues and go to www.loveofreading.org.) Sometimes a presentation takes place at a local Indigo, Chapters or Coles Books store, with a giant cheque, excited schoolchildren and store employees, and bemused customers.
Indigo’s Love of Reading Foundation also raises funds through an Adopta-School program run in stores for three weeks in the autumn. Adopted schools receive Indigo e-Giftcards based on online adopters and cash donations from in-store customers.
Reisman sees the lack of investment in reading and school librarians as an injustice. She’s personally funding a television documentary to further expose the situation and show how reading betters children’s lives. “We will get to the goal of getting this changed,” she says firmly.
The youngster so intrigued by that special book in Grade 4 at Weledeh during its first year of the Indigo Love of Reading grant will graduate from Grade 12 in Yellowknife this year. “He’s worked hard to address his reading struggles,” Merril Dean observes. “And he did read that book.”