In honour of I Love to Read month, Juniper School in Thompson is currently running a book drive to help promote literacy in another Northern Manitoba community.
According to principal Lucy Mayor, their student council originally aimed to collect 1,137 books: one for every resident of Moose Lake.
However, as of Feb. 19, Mayor said they’re already crossed this threshold, having received 1,410 books from community members and local organizations like the Thompson Public Library.
“We know that literacy is a big part of equipping people with fundamental skills and tools that they need to be successful as they grow up as kids and even adults who want to better their own careers,” said Mayor.
After this book drive concludes at the end of the month, Juniper will send all of the donations to Frontier Mosakahiken School in Moose Lake.
Rather than simply use this shipment to stock their library, Mosakahiken principal Dave McDougal said their staff will actively try to bring these books into their students’ homes by matching the kids up with different books based on their individual reading levels.
“We’ve been doing a lot of PR with our parents in terms of the importance of literacy, of reading at home and stuff like this,” said McDougal. “We see this as a key component in moving things forward, in terms of students readiness for school and literacy levels.”
Even though Juniper’s student council has already surpassed their original goal for this book drive, they will continue to accept donations during regular school hours until Feb. 28.
