A local organization has stepped up to become a true “Literacy Champion” for our community.
The Sicamous Legion Branch #99 made a very generous donation to the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap Society (LASS) to help resurrect the “Books for Babies” program in Sicamous for 2011.
Jennifer Findlay, literacy outreach coordinator for the North Okanagan-Shuswap, attended a recent Sicamous interagency meeting to talk about the Books for Babies program. She mentioned to the group that a sponsor was needed to purchase the book bags for the program.
Always a strong supporter of community initiatives involving children and families, Cyril Gosse, president of the Sicamous Legion, offered to take the request back to his members. As a result, the legion agreed to sponsor the purchase of the book bags for the Books for Babies program in Sicamous. The generous donation was also used to purchase book bags for the Sicamous PALS program (Parents as Literacy Supporters) and other local literacy initiatives.
The Books for BC Babies program ran for four years until provincial funding was cut in 2010. LASS recognizes the value of this program for families and was fortunate enough to find local businesses and organizations to make the program a reality in all communities in the North Okanagan-Shuswap.
In partnership with Public Health, the book bags will be distributed to all babies born in the Sicamous area in 2011.
Each family will receive a baby board book to share with their child, as well as some community resource information in a handy book bag.
The Books for Babies program has been a community literacy project.
The generous community donations from Browne Johnson Land Surveyors and Mary Scheidegger to purchase the books, and from the Sicamous Legion to purchase the book bags, demonstrate that it truly takes a community to raise a child.
Submitted by the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap Society