Staff at the Exshaw-based Bighorn Library was recognized recently for making a difference.
Librarians Rose Reid and Bonnie Ryan received the first Marigold Library System Making a Difference award for their Bonnybooks program, which has put over 35,000 good-quality, gently-used and new books into the hands of children since 2005 as a means to promote literacy.
Reid said the outreach award was also based on the fact that Bighorn Library is helping other libraries set up a Bonnybooks program of their own; so far the High Prairie Municipal Library has started a program and the Wetaskiwin Public Library is considering starting its own chapter.
Reid said the award says the Marigold Library System believes that literacy services should extend beyond the four walls of a library.
The program started in Exshaw with one kindergarten class of about 20 students after Ryan set out to find a way to give books that were being weeded from the library’s stacks a second life.
That experience made Ryan and Reid realize they had just started something bigger.
“Once you see kids leafing through these piles of books, you would definitely want to do it again. You get hooked,” Reid said.
“These kids were beside themselves… One little girl was just shaking. She was just beside herself and we thought ‘c’mon, we have to do that again’.”
Since then, the duo have given books to children at schools in Morley, Eden Valley, Ta’Otha (located near Nordegg) and Hobbema, helping students develop a love for books and literacy.
The award came with $500, which Reid said, “we’ll almost certainly spend it on books.”
Without its volunteers, primarily Bob Clarke of Banff and Calgary resident Marion Wooden and its Canmore-based partners, Second Story Books (where readers can put their book trade-in credit towards Bonnybooks) and the Victory Thrift Store, Reid said Bonnybooks wouldn’t be the success it has become.
Lafarge also donated money, allowing Bonnybooks to buy a collection of First Nations-themed books for the Bighorn Library.
“We both believe literacy is a tool that you can give someone that can utterly change their lives,” Reid said.
“I didn’t have any idea it would go like this. I expected we’d keep finding homes for books in Exshaw and at the Exshaw School, but we’ve given away far more books than we ever thought.”
For more information, or to donate quality used or new books, contact the Bighorn Library at 403-673-3571.
