BONNYVILLE –
The Bonnyville Municipal Library is celebrating literacy, and they’re inviting families to join in the fun.
On Jan. 27, the local branch is marking Family Literacy Day with a free event focused on instilling a love of reading in children.
Kicking off at 6:30 p.m. at the Bonnyville Municipal Library, attendees will enjoy book-related activities and games, along with a reader’s theatre.
“It’s more like an interactive story telling, halfway between a skit and reading a story book,” explained program manager for the library Kat Eliason, adding members of the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs will be on-hand for the festivities.
“They’re icons in the community, and their reputation as athletes and respected people around town will draw some of those other people that maybe normally wouldn’t walk through our doors on a regular basis. They’re also super supportive of the library.”
The theme for this year’s event is Take 20 in 2020.
“The whole idea is to take 20 minutes a day for learning and reading with your family, whether that’s getting your kids involved in reading a recipe to make supper, doing some baking, reading the clues on a crossword puzzle, or playing Monopoly,” Eliason expressed.
Along with having fun with books, youngsters seeing their role models engaged in literacy-related activities encourages a lifelong desire to read, added Eliason.
“Child literacy greatly increases when their parents are actively involved in their reading, learning, and communication… It’s so important that the adults in children’s lives are part of their learning and literacy journey to just make them better communicators, readers, and overall better functioning people in society.”
This is the first year the library has hosted a Family Literacy Day event without the Bonnyville Community Learning Council, which dissolved in 2019.
“We still have lots of space for lots of people to come and play with us at the library,” Eliason noted. “We will have lots of prizes. We’ve got books, games, and everybody will get something to bring home.”
When considering where to host the event, they decided the local branch was the best fit.
“Libraries are traditionally a place for early literacy development with families,” stated library manager Leah Woodford.
Eliason added, “A lot of people think about bringing their littlest children to literacy programs, and this is a good way to remind folks that literacy is a lifelong skill. So bring your older kids, bring other adults, anybody that does word games, crosswords… anybody that’s still working on their literacy skills, even if you’re 80-years-old.”
Both Woodford and Eliason are looking forward to the evening and what it has in store.
“I love when the library is alive and just a little bit noisy,” Eliason laughed. “As the programmer, that’s my job, to bring life and activity into the library where gone are the days of being shushed in the library. There’s certainly time for that when we have exams or people working on things, but if we don’t bring kids in and let kids be kids, then we’ll never have adult patrons in the future. I’m excited just for bringing in new and different people in and just letting them see that the library is a living place.”
