A Cedar Elementary School teacher and students went book shopping Wednesday to provide an infusion for the school library.
The Nanaimo Ladysmith district school was named Indigo Love of Reading Foundation’s 2018 Adopt a School recipient with fundraising taking place at the Woodgrove Chapters until Oct. 7. The book store will take donations at the till and offer the school a 30 per cent discount on books.
Woodbank Primary and North Cedar Intermediate amalgamated to form Cedar Elementary back in 2016 and Ashley Roth, teacher-librarian, said there is a need for books.
“Because we merged two libraries, we had a lot of duplicates, so while we had more books, they weren’t necessarily quality books,” said Roth. “They were older and dated because no one really wanted to invest in the books if they knew the school was closing.”
Roth said a huge proportion of books will be what students want, but she seeks books that support the curriculum, including social studies, science and ones related to residential schools in order to help children understand what has happened in Canada’s history.
“I think the biggest thing is that the kids are excited to be here and they’re excited to pick out books,” said Roth. “We really want wild readers which are people that love reading for the rest of their lives, so the more they have books that interest them and excite them, the more likely they’re going to continue to read, which is the biggest predictor of success lifelong.”
Jo-Anne Kossey, Nanaimo Chapters’ customer experience lead, said all proceeds go to Cedar Elementary.
“We let [customers] know specifically it’s to put books into the hands of children,” she said. “The goal is to get one book per child at the school … We always look to see that surpassed and put as many books into their hands as we can.”
Roth’s students enjoyed the trip to the bookstore and reading.
“I enjoy reading mostly comic books and Dog Man,” said student Nolan Johnson who makes sure to take books out every week. “I also like Captain Underpants.”
While Chapters is raising money in store for Cedar Elementary, people can also donate online to help Bayview, Cinnabar Valley, Georgia Avenue, Pauline Haarer, Coal Tyee, Mountain View, Pleasant Valley, Chase River, Park Avenue Community and Rock City elementary schools as well.
For more information, go to www.loveofreading.org/en.
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