Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium's Initiative for Literacy Month
You just never know how a chance encounter can open up new opportunities. It was through a meeting with Theresa Ebden, chair of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, that the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium ended up having a booth at the event to collect new or gently used books for children under 12.
Given that September is literacy month, this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, but we only had a week to pull it off. And we did.
It was very much a partnership approach. A flyer was drawn up and kindly circulated by the festival staff and posted locally in the village of Eden Mills. We partnered with The Children’s Reading Room, a non-profit organization that gives away free books to children who would not, perhaps, have books at home.
The District’s Canopy Tent was borrowed for the event and volunteers from the club and The Children’s Reading Room were recruited. We had collection buckets at each entrance as well as at our booth.
The end result… we collected 80 books and growing as we continue to receive more books.
Authors donated their books – one providing us with 25 copies. Others brought books and left them in our buckets, and we made some useful contacts for future book drives.
As a first-time event, we were thrilled at the outcome, and next year it will only be bigger and better.
Plus, we have two new partner organizations with whom to grow and collaborate further.
Submitted by Anne Day
Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium