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Our guest bloggers today are students from Holy Family Catholic School located in Toronto, Canada. Holy Family is an elementary school that recently signed up with First Book Canada, and they’ve already received over 1,000 books for their small school.

Forget the electronic games, nothing beats spending time with a fun book. That’s what the students at Holy Family Catholic School discovered when First Book Canada donated a variety of exciting books to the students of the school.

“I like the books I got because the topics were interesting,” said Daniel, a third-grade student at Holy Family. “My books were Traitor’s Gate, Ancient Rome and Medieval Times. These books are my favourites. Thank you First Book Canada, I hope you will send more cool books to us.”

The books included fiction as well as nonfiction catering to readers of various reading levels and ages.  The older students at Holy Family shared in the joy of reading and were similarly appreciative.

“First Book Canada has given kids around Canada an opportunity to read different books on different topics,” said Micah, a sixth-grade student. “Every book tells a story. Even kids from JK were given a chance to get a head start on reading. Most importantly, First Book Canada has let us learn information we never knew before. Thank you for giving our school a chance to turn the TV off and open a book.”

The post Students at Holy Family Catholic School Receive Over 1,000 Books appeared first on First Book Blog.

What am I reading now? Lexi’s Magic Clothes by Margy Reid
 

First Book Canada

The holiday season is upon us. And we all know what that means: Shopping. Thus, comes the inevitable pressure to find the perfect gift for every person on your list. However, this season is shaping up to look a little different, especially since a majority of Canadians feel that the season has become synonymous with consumerism.

If you are one of those Canadians that is searching for an alternative, consider First Book Canada. The mission of First Book Canada is “to see that all children, regardless of their economic conditions, can achieve more in school and in life through access to an ongoing supply of new books.” To date, First Book (Canada) has donated 85 million books to children across the United States and Canada.

The organization lists price as the #1 barrier to book ownership. As an avid reader myself, I know all too well how expensive books can be. However, a donation of just “$10 = 5 new books for children in need.” Now, when’s the last time you got that much bang for your buck?

Whether you celebrate Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or are simply in the giving spirit head on over to First Book Canada. What can be better than giving the gift of reading this festive season?

 Today’s blog post come from Rebecca Mills. After a successful career in corporate communications, Rebecca Mills is now pursuing her dream of a career in publishing. She is a recent graduate of the Humber College Creative Book Publishing program and is now an intern at First Book Canada. Rebecca is a lifelong reader and advocate for early literacy.

Fresh on the heels of our move into our newwarehouse facility, First Book Canada is distributing 20,000+ books to children from low-income families across Southern Ontario this week.  First Book Canada is grateful to the Scholastic Canada Book Club’s ClassroomCares program for their generous book donation.

Organizations like The Power to Be International, which runs in-school literacy programs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Highland Heights Junior Public School, Literature for Life, and Community Resources Brantford, among others, picked up  hundreds of new books all destined to build a love of reading among children who otherwise would not have books of their own.

If you work for a school or program that serves children from low-income families, sign up with First Book Canada. And if you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you.

Our friends at First Book Canada just wrapped up the largest book distribution in their three-year history, distributing 30,000 books to children from low-income homes in the city of Calgary and across the province of Alberta.

Like First Book in the U.S., First Book Canada relies on the generosity of partners and neighbors to get books to kids in need. NeighbourLink Calgary hosted the distribution in their warehouse, and volunteers from Pi Beta Phi, Calgary Youth Corps and the local community came out to help ship and load boxes of books bound for classrooms, libraries and homes across the province of Alberta.

You can learn more about First Book Canada at their website, or keep up with their latest news on Twitter.

“Please accept my personal thanks to you and First Book Canada for its generous donation of books, in support of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary. It is people like you that enable us to continue building upon our shared ideals for growth in our communities through advocacy, leadership and engagement of over 42,000 children, youth and families.”
– Cheryl Doherty, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary

“On behalf of Further Education Society’s learners, board members and staff, we would like to thank you and First Book Canada for your support. With your support we can strengthen communities, families and individuals through literacy and learning. Thank you for your community spirit.”
– Sue Phillips, Co-Executive Director, Further Education Society

“I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the amazing donation of books from First Book Canada to Catholic Family Service of Calgary. The developmentally appropriate books for boys and girls ages 9–12 will support children and families in a number of our programs. Thank you once again for caring and wanting to make a difference in childhood literacy.”
– Greg Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Family Service of Calgary

First Book/Le Premier Livre will distribute 25,000 new books to children from low-income communities across Canada if 5,000 people pledge to see the award-winning documentary film Waiting For “Superman” when it opens in theatres in Toronto October 1st. Go to www.WaitingForSuperman.com and pledge today to see the film and help get 25,000 new books to children across Canada!

First Book/Le Premier Livre recently attended the National Family Literacy Conference in Edmonton, Alberta July 15^th – 17^th.  The conference had over 300 delegates in attendance and efforts were placed on registering new book recipient groups from across Canada with the support of Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Colleen Murray and Pi Beta Phi University of Alberta Edmonton Chapter President Dianna Campre.

Many attending delegates were surprised to learn about the resources available to them once registered with First Book/Le Premier Livre and have now registered their programs with us.  To learn more about First Book/Le Premier Livre visit www.firstbookcanada.org.

Colleen Murray; Pi Beta Phi Alumnae, Wayne Cochrane; Director of Operations FB/LPL and Dianna Campre; Pi Beta Phi Chapter President University of Alberta Edmonton

First Book Canada held their first ever book distribution in the city of Calgary this last week, under the direction of one determined woman named Carol Anne Ruscica and her fearless compatriot Wayne Cochrane. Between me, a First Book newcomer, and distribution veteran Andy Wright, we were on a mission to make the first First Book/Le Premier Livre distribution a successful one!

More than 17, 000 books were distributed to 23 different organizations, courtesy of Scholastic Canada.  On top of that, once organizations came to pick up their books, the word spread about how First Book Canada was providing brand new books to organizations across Calgary and new recipient groups piled in almost as quickly as the snow.

Lucky for us, volunteers piled in as well. We were blessed with nearly 20 volunteers throughout the course of the week which included Pi Beta Phi alumnae, Calgary Youth Corps and TD Canada Trust employees.  Neighbour Link was generous enough to house the books in their warehouse and their office and warehouse crew were more than accommodating during our chilly 3 day stay.

The First Book/Le Premier Livre staff are now settling back in their Toronto office but their feet have barely hit the floor! Due to the overwhelming success in Calgary they are making new connections all over Canada and are excited to begin planning the next distribution.

If you’re in Toronto, chances are good that we met you on Sunday at The Word On The Street Festival! After all, you couldn’t really get past us without stopping in.

Hundreds of folks learned more about how they can help spread the magic of reading, thanks to the energetic Pi Beta Phi volunteers who helped us staff the booth. We were overwhelmed from set up until pulling the last banner with interest about our programs across Canada.

Thanks to the visitors who stopped by and the help of police officers from 23 Division, hundreds of books will be distributed to children in the Jane Finch corridor – Toronto’s highest at risk neighbourhood.

With more than 200,000 at the Festival this year, we know we’ve made some friends.  Here are some highlights we’re beaming with Canadian pride about: the Toronto Blue Jays commented this was the best event ever and the busiest all summer, Canadian children’s author Susan Hughes signed copies of her first book Earth to Audrey and when we ran out, continued to sign posters. When we were just about out of steam, Wayne and I ran to Tim Horton’s for a coffee. A woman noticed our First Book t-shirts and screamed “First Book – I LOVE First Book!” Turns out she’s from Calgary which is where we’re headed later this week for a distribution and she’ll now be right alongside us sorting and handing out books.