Gail Anderson-Dargatz
We were honoured with the presence of well-known author Gail Anderson-Dargatz at two recent events. In April, she was the guest speaker for the Family Stories Project where she shared ideas on how to research family stories with learners and tutors. In May, she spoke to the Literacy Central VI Book Club about writing in general and the stimulus for her writing. Her enthusiasm inspired those who attended these sessions to start writing. Thank you, Gail, for so generously sharing your talents. If you have not already read one of Gail’s novels - The Cure for Death by Lightning, A Recipe for Bees, and A Rhinestone Button - we highly recommend that you do!
Bookstore
Our bookstore has done extremely well over the past year. We finally broke $100,000.00 in sales for the year. Our thanks go to the many volunteers and our hard-working bookstore supervisor, Nicole Liptak.
We have many books listed on the Internet thanks to our diligent volunteer Bea Holmes and her able assistant Sue Castonguay. We are listed on three different sites: www.abebooks.com, www.biblio.com, www.choosebooks.com. We have been sending books all over the world since April 2001.
Computer Recycling
Thanks to our volunteer Frank Hughes, we donated 50 computers in the last year to families who were chosen by local schools. This is our contribution to the battle of the digital divide.
Scrabble
Our 2nd annual Scrabble Tournament was a wonderful success. There were 34 players in all and we raised $3,647.94 for our literacy programs.
Chris Playne had the highest single game score at 435 and also the highest single word score of 100. Dave Bigelow raised the most money with pledges of $514.00.
The Scrabble Committee: Carol
Moffatt, Lynne Fraser, Barry Fulford, Dawn Zavarise, and Katy
Eaton. Not shown: Lorna Zaback and Val Fulford.
We couldn’t have done it without the many businesses and volunteers who supported us. Special thanks go to the crew from Coastal Community Credit Union for their hard work in checking everyone in and our own Brian O’Rooney for writing a great computer program that made everything run so smoothly.
Thank you to our sponsor Nanaimo Honda, with additional support from Panago Pizza, Thrifty Foods, Richardson Food Group, Tim Horton’s Bowen Rd., Tim Horton’s Rock City Rd., Subway Malaspina, New Image Interiors, and Coast Bastion Inn Catering.
Photocopier
We would like to acknowledge the generosity of Rudy deGroot of Nanaimo Business Machines for the donation of our latest copier. This one even sorts. Nanaimo Business Machines has been giving us great service, thanks to Ernie Shorrocks, and upgrading our copier for several years now. They exemplify true community spirit.