A Good Book Drive

A Good Book Drive is running this month to help stock The Writers’ Exchange library in East Vancouver with kids books. The campaign was started by Cory Ashworth (from The Peak) and his friend Lizzy Karp (Co-Founder of Rain City Chronicles) who were inspired to help after hearing about The Writers’ Exchange program at a Rain City Chronicles event.

The Writers’ Exchange makes literacy exciting and accessible for inner-city kids through free mentoring and creative writing projects. The vision of the Writers’ Exchange is that every child will have the literacy skills necessary to access a world where anything is possible. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and supporters, all of the Writers’ Exchange programs are free for the children and families they serve. The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives, a nationally registered charity.

The only program of it’s kind in Vancouver, The Writers’ Exchange currently serves 250 children aged 5 to 18, with the support of 150 trained volunteer mentors, and will be opening a new facility in January of 2013 that will increase the number of inner-city children served to more than 500. The new, dedicated space will house after-school tutoring for all ages and subjects, an expanded writing-workshop schedule and family literacy programs. And books are the heart of all Writers’ Exchange programs.

Throughout the month of November you can stop by one of the following locations to donate a new kids book (for ages 5 to 18) in a Good Book Box:

Nelson the Seagull (315 Carrall Street); Collage Collage (621 Kingsway); Dilly Dally (1161 Commercial Drive); Union Wood Company (503 Railway Street); Walrus (3408 Cambie).

You will receive a bookplate for your book as well so that you can personalize your donation and share a bit about what the book means to you.

When I was young my brother, sister and I were lucky enough to have story-time every night with my parents. My dad was best at telling stories from memory and my mom was always more animated, putting on different voices for characters in the books we read. One of our favourite bedtime books was simply a collection of short stories and we would get to pick one, two, or three pieces to read each night depending on the length.

I combined the love I had for choosing my own adventure each night with a few of the first books I ever picked out on my own, by Roald Dahl (like Danny, Champion of the World, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and more). I’m donating The Roald Dahl Treasury which is a collection of excerpts from his books that will hopefully lead to more reading and exploration of his imaginative work.

Follow A Good Book Drive on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to find out more about the campaign.