B.E.A.R.S. and B.E.A.M.S. founder Bill Pineo is moving on to other community activities. Bill says it's time to make a change. He and his wife Pam will be volunteering for Meals on Wheels.

Bill founded the program at Princess Royal Elementary School in 1989. At one point he had over 200 volunteers working in a number of schools in our area. He handed the coordinating over to Literacy Central VI in 1994.

Everyone connected with the program wishes Bill and Pam success with their new volunteer venture and much happiness and good health for many years to come.

A number of schools have requested volunteers to start in mid September so please give us a call if reading to children for as little as a half an hour a week appeals to you.

With the weather we've been having it's not hard to be thinking about Christmas. You will see on the enclosed card that we have sets of 8 cards (2 of each design) painted by local artists. There is a nice write up about each of the artists on the back of the cards. What a great way to send a little something of Nanaimo to your out of town friends and support local artists and Literacy Central VI. We have reduced the price this year to $7.00 a set including the tax. We have them at our office and bookstore and we will accept cash, cheque, Visa or Mastercard.

Our office will remain open this summer. Regular hours: 9:00 to 4:00, Monday to Friday.