Books for Babies® Provincial News 
(Marg May, left, and Susan Wiseman, centre, present
the donation of $2000 from RBC to Tina) Financial and People Support came
from the staff at the Corner Brook branch
of the Royal Bank and from the Royal
Bank of Canada Foundation, Atlantic
Region.
In response to a funding proposal submitted
through the local branch, $2000 was
donated to the Books for Babies® provincial program.
The presentation was made in August by
Marg May, RBC Assistant Manager, and
Susan Wiseman, Customer Service
Representative, Corner Brook branch, to
Tina Stewart, the Provincial Coordinator
of Books for Babies®.
The donation will be used to offset the
costs of new birthday year books for preschool
children and a new supply of
totebags for the initial packages provided
to families with newborns registered in our early literacy program. The
staff at the
Corner Brook branch also help by filling a
large number of tote
bags in a short period
of time! These initial
packages are then
ready to be delivered
at Western Memorial Regional Hospital by Humber Literacy
Council volunteers.
Our tote bags now hold:
- A board book
- A growth chart
- Baby's First Year - a parent-child
Journal Calendar
- A parent's Handbook
- A Books for Babies® bookmark
- A Books for Babies® brochure
- 11 Ways to Help Your Children
become Better Readers
- Assorted Health Canada "Child
Safe" information sheets
Materials Info:
The provincial office of Books for Babies® distributed
1600 tote bag kits and 1300 birthday year books between October,
2003, and
June, 2004, in response to orders from delivery sites. 32% of the
birthday year books were Year 1 and 24% were Year 2. The cost of
materials rose by 65% in 2003-2004 but the cost to delivery groups
remains the same and to families, it's still FREE.
 Word
on the Rock took place on Sunday,
September 26th, outside the Geo Centre
on Signal Hill in St. John's. It brought
together authors, book publishers, printing
company reps and literacy stakeholders, like
Books for Babies®.
Three large tents framed the beautiful Geo
Centre grounds to show-case literacy materials
to the public. Authors read, clowns
performed, musicians played and people
visited.
We had 106 entries in our booth draw. A
Foxtrap family with three young children
won the Books for Babies® tote bag full of
our materials.
More than 200 of our brochures and bookmarks
were distributed to people visiting our booth. NL Laubach Literacy Council
partnered with us.  Materials
were supplied by Melanie Callahan, their new Executive
Director, and Ms. Alwyn Kean, a member
of the Bayshore Literacy Council, shared "booth duty" with Tina.
Contact was made with all of the publishing
and printing company representatives in the
hope that Books for Babies® will, one
day, be able to use books from and about our
province.
Several people involved in literacy programs
elsewhere in the country stopped by
for a chat about our program. Some of our
tote bags for newborns have since been
purchased as gifts for children and grandchildren
in our province and in Ontario. (Photos and text: Tina Stewart) |
