Rotary's Partnership with the Write To Read Project

Prince Edward, the Queen’s youngest son, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, officially opened a Rotary library for the First Nation’s community of Dihtidaht on Vancouver Island on Monday, September 15, 2014.

The North Delta Rotary Club has been working with Rotary Past District Governor Bob Blacker and BC’s Government House to install the library, which included books, computers and a community room allowing children, elders and all community members to read and to spend time together.

The books donated to the Ditidaht library included books donated by Rotarians at the 2014 Rotary District 5050 Conference in Whistler, BC.

The Write to Read Project began in 2007 with a discussion between two Rotarians - Bob Blacker and then-BC Lieutenant Governor, Steven Point (formerly a member of the Chilliwack Rotary Club, before being appointed as a judge).

Blacker, serving as the Lieutenant Governor’s Aide-de-Camp, was discussing literacy projects that Rotary does internationally. Point asked what Rotary was doing for literacy in our own backyard, especially for remote native communities suffering dealing with lack of education for their youth.

                            

As of September 2014, the Write To Read Project had built 9 libraries with many more scheduled as the program picks up speed and partners. Those partners include Rotary Clubs, Britco (supplying modular library units) and London Drugs (computers), along with transportation from BC Ferries and the Canadian Navy and the help of librarians whom Blacker nicknamed the "Library Response Team" or LRT.

BC’s Government House new Lieutenant Governor, Judith Guichon, has continued the support of the program since taking over from Point in 2012 and was be present at the ceremony with the Royal Couple, Rotary District 5050 Governor, Lyle Ryan and North Delta Rotary members.

For more on the Write To Read Project, click here to watch this news story

Click here to visit the Write To Read Project website

Click here to view photos on the Rotary District 5050 Facebook page.