Books for Babies® Chapter Events and News 
 Birthday
Party in Burgeo
On February 16, 2004 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m., the Burgeo Public Library
hosted a birthday party for Books for Babies®
and there were 18 children in attendance. The party began with a welcome
from Mr. Jim Pink, Chairperson.
 The
children were then broken into three smaller groups. At Station “A”,
the children took part in a Fishing Game where they caught a fish and
then acted out the question.
 At
Station “B”, they selected a pencil and hoped to select
one of the two lucky ones. Then they either participated in Put the
Letter on the Book game, Put the Worm on the Apple game or Put the Bee
on the Hive game.
At Station “C”, the children watched puppet plays which
were performed by volunteers and the children constructed their own
personalized paper which will be bound into Burgeo Library’s own
Books for Babies® book!
After the games concluded, a lunch was served to parents and children.
The party went over quite smoothly and was enjoyed by all. (Christa
Standing)
Materials Info: The provincial office
of Books for Babies® has distributed
970 tote bag kits and 1142 birthday year books between October, 2003,
and March, 2004, in response to orders from Chapters. 36% of the birthday
year books have been Year 1. The cost of materials has risen by 65%
but the cost to Chapters remains the same and to families, it’s
still FREE.
 Hope
Literacy Council — Belleoram
On January 27th, 2004, the Hope Literacy Council partnered with the
Fortune Bay North Family Resource Centre and Conrad Fitzgerald Academy
to celebrate Family Literacy Day.
Children from birth to grade three and their families were invited
to the school for an afternoon of activities. The day began with an
explanation of Family  Literacy
Day and the importance of reading to your children. Next, each group
were read stories by a community member.
Then the adults helped the children make bookmarks to take home. A
snack was served and loot bags containing literacy related treats and
a book were presented to each child. A great day was had by all and
it was wonderful to see the community working together. Plans are to
continue to celebrate this event each year. (Rhonda
McDonald)
Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Books for Babies® in central Labrador
continues to flourish with packages being distributed through the office
of Public Health at the 6-week checkup time.
We have run Books for Babies® for years
on the proceeds of the MUN Medical School Monte Carlo Night and the
Labatt’s 24-hour relay. We have also had help from Peacock Primary
School, who donate some of the proceeds from their annual Project Read
event, where children are sponsored to read for a month.
The students of Peacock Primary
School also make cards from the class
to include in the packages and, in a
small town, naturally, the baby usually
receives the package from someone
the family knows. We handed on some
of the packages to the Labrador Inuit
Health Commission as the north coast
communities had no longer been receiving
the packages once we stopped distributing them in the hospital. They
have now ordered more through the provincial
BfB office and the program continues.
Thank you Tina for all the work
you are doing and hello to everyone else
out there! (Martha MacDonald) |
