Books by the thousands
De Beers Canada has been promoting literacy in nine NWT schools for years
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, June 1, 2015
DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION
De Beers Canada has concluded its Books in Homes tour for another year.
During a May 26 visit by Book in Homes, Doreen Apples, a community liaison officer with De Beers Canada, reads to Brooke Fabian, a kindergarten student at Deninu School in Fort Resolution. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
The tour - through which the diamond corporation hands out free books to all students attending nine schools in eight communities - made its final stop in Fort Resolution on May 26.
With this year's total included, Books in Homes has distributed about 37,500 books in its 13 years of existence. Those books had a total value of about $750,000.
Books in Homes was welcomed for the sixth time at Fort Resolution's Deninu School.
"Students are always really excited when they see the books being set up in the gym," said Deninu principal Kate Powell.
"I think one thing that they really like is browsing the books, because we don't have a bookstore in town and there's not really one in Hay River, either."
Powell noted the students enjoy having many different types of books from which to choose.
"They always have conversations when they're choosing them and it's neat to see the different books that they choose," she said. "They're not necessarily what you might think."
Each student from kindergarten to Grade 12 gets three free books and teachers also get three free books.
"Having the staff reading, too and enjoying those books and talking to the students about the books, it's a nice touch that they do that," said Powell. In addition, younger children from the community daycare in Fort Resolution are also invited and books are selected for them.
"The books they bring are always really up to date," Powell said, pointing out this year students saw stickers, pullouts, 3D glasses and crafts.
"It's a really big range and I think the kids really like that," she said.
Amy Mercredi, a Grade 8 student at Deninu School, said she enjoys the books brought by De Beers.
"I think they're really fun and interesting sometimes," she said. Mercredi said the books help students learn new things and introduce younger students to new words.
Darryl Balsillie, a Grade 9 student at Deninu School, also welcomes Books in Homes.
"They bring a lot of books to let other people read," he said. "And I think that's a great idea."
Balsillie said he got some of his favourite books from Books in Homes.
Along with Fort Resolution, Books in Homes visits Gameti, Wekweeti, Whati, N'Dilo, Dettah, Lutsel K'e and two schools in Behchoko.
De Beers invited News/North to accompany the corporation to their May 6 Gameti stop, where kids flooded the Jean Wetrade Gameti School gymnasium to leaf through books. With hundreds to choose from, including popular young adult picks like The Fault in Our Stars, graphic novels like Scott Pilgrim, instructional books on crafts, Lego heroes and even Frozen, the students had a tough time selecting their choices.
During the visit, De Beers procurement co-ordinator Katie Parker took time to read to some of the younger kids. Many in the tight-knit community of 320 residents were also happy to see Doreen Apples, a Gameti resident who now works as a community liaison officer for De Beers in Yellowknife.
Tom Ormsby, director of external and corporate affairs with De Beers Canada, said Books in Homes resulted from work with communities early on about what benefits they would like to see from a mine and one of the targets identified was improved literacy that could help lead to opportunities with the company.
"The fundamentals of literacy are so important there must be a way that we also can try to stimulate that throughout the entire community to help increase the opportunities, and that's how this began," he explained.
Ormsby said the company was really pleased by the initial response to Books in Homes and how it has grown.
"It's been a phenomenal program," he said, "In fact, after we started it in the Northwest Territories, we expanded it to our Ontario presence when we started to build our mine in northern Ontario, and it's had a similar impact."
Ormsby said De Beers "absolutely" plans to continue Books in Homes because it has had tremendous benefits.
Commissioner George Tuccaro is a big supporter of Books in Homes, and has travelled to communities with the program for the last three years.
"Just to see the joy and the excitement in the children's faces is worth the price of taking time to travel," he said while at Deninu School.
Tuccaro described Books in Homes as an opportunity to encourage young people to continue with their schooling and to encourage them to take an interest in literacy.
The commissioner said students are excited to receive their books, noting, "A lot of them are supposed to go right back to their classrooms after they get their books, but you see them in the hallways reading their books before they get back to their class."
- with files from Karen K. Ho
