Raise-a-Reader Back on the Streets

Montreal’s second annual Raise-a-Reader Campaign in support of children’s literacy will be launched on Thursday, October 2.

A national fundraising event sponsored by CanWest Global and The Gazette, last year’s campaign was a huge success. Montreal ranked second in the country after Vancouver, raising $77,000.

Beneficiaries of these funds were LPQ, Fondation québecoise pour l’alphabétisation and CNIB Spinoza Talking Bear Program. These groups will once again be beneficiaries in 2003.

On October 2, local celebrities, Gazette employees and volunteers will once again be on various downtown street corners hawking papers and raising awareness and funds for children’s literacy.

The fun will then move to Boccacino’s on Ste. Catherine Street W. for breakfast and festivities, emceed by Larry Smith, President and Publisher of The Gazette. Everybody is invited for what promises to be another great way to support literacy in Quebec.

LPQ’s portion of the 2002 funds was awarded to LPQ members whose children’s/family literacy programs were selected by a committee of LPQ. Our portion of the proceeds of the 2003 Raise-a-Reader campaign will again be awarded to children’s/family literacy projects. All members of LPQ who have projects in this area of literacy are eligible to apply for a grant this year. For a complete list of groups who were awarded Raise-a-Reader funds in 2002, please click here.

Fraser-Hickson Library Set To Re-open

Many people will be very, very happy to see the doors of the Fraser-Hickson Library in N.D.G. reopen on October 16. It has been several months since the Library was forced to close its doors to the public because of a lack of funds.

After many public expressions of support and several months of working to raise funds, the library will once again serve the community. This is good news to the many people who have been well served by the Fraser-Hickson for decades.

The Library is particularly important to the literacy community, as it is one of very few libraries to address literacy in any way. What best illustrates the Fraser-Hickson’s sensitivity to our cause is the fact that during the months that it has been closed, one of the few services that kept going was the service it offers to tutors and their students. The Library provides space for tutoring sessions. If not for this space, these tutors and their students would have to look elsewhere for a quiet, pleasant place to work.

Even after the doors reopen, the Library will need continued support. If you would like to know more about how you can help, please call the Library at (514) 489-5301.

Resources Available

RECLAIM would like to donate to one or more literacy programs, several boxes of books that were written for literacy students.