First Book Canada Partners with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation To Donate 45,000 New Books
> Blog > First Book Canada Partners with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation To Donate 45,000 New Books TORONTO, Ontario (June 15, 2018) – For the 6th year in a row, First Book Canada is partnering with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation to donate a total of 45,000 new books to 30 high-needs schools country-wide— with 1,500 books to each of these schools. The partnership kicks off today with a donation of 1,500 books at Major Ballachey School in Brantford, Ontario. These books will arrive in time for summer reading. The books have been generously donated from Bayard, Les Editions Heritage, Disney Worldwide Publishing, Marvel Press, Disney Press, Lucasfilm Press, and Hyperion Press.
The thirty high-needs Canadian elementary schools receiving books through this partnership were selected in May as runners-up for the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation’s Literacy Fund grants. These schools have demonstrated a tremendous commitment to literacy and to inspiring their students to become engaged students and passionate readers.
Though books and educational resources are critical, they are scarce for many children attending high-needs elementary schools. Access to adequate resources is the single greatest contributor to educational inequity, but recent research identified vast ‘book deserts’ concentrated in high-needs communities.[1] In a poll of the First Book network, 82 per cent of respondents reported that without First Book their children would have very few or no new books.
”The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation believes that all Canadian children deserve access to new and exciting books that can help inspire them to fall in love with reading and enhance their engagement as students,” said Ariel Siller, Executive Director of the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. “Unfortunately, due to insufficient public funding of school libraries, many Canadian schools can only afford one new library book a year for every three children. That’s why we are delighted to be partnering with First Book Canada to place more books in the hands of Canadian children.”
“First Book Canada believes that the imagination and learning that comes from access to books is a child’s best path to success,” said Tom Best, Executive Director of First Book Canada. “Through this partnership with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, First Book Canada is improving access to quality education for students from schools in underserved communities.”
The 2018 Indigo Love of Reading / First Book Canada Donation Recipients (by province):
| Huntington Hills School | Calgary | Alberta |
| St Patrick Elementary School | Calgary | Alberta |
| Glenbrook Elementary School | Calgary | Alberta |
| St. Peter Elementary School | Calgary | Alberta |
| Waverley School | Edmonton | Alberta |
| West Bench Elementary School | Penticton | Alberta |
| Rockheights Middle School | Victoria | British Columbia |
| Lord Roberts | Vancouver | British Columbia |
| Glenwood Elementary School | Maple Ridge | British Columbia |
| Lord Nelson School | Winnipeg | Manitoba |
| Glenwood School | Winnipeg | Manitoba |
| Sunbury West School | Fredericton Junction | New Brunswick |
| Forest Hill Elementary School | Fredericton | New Brunswick |
| Northern Lights Academy | Rigolet | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| St. Peter’s Elementary School | Upper Island Cove | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Princess Alexandra School | Hay River | Northwest Territories |
| Chebucto Heights Elementary School | Halifax | Nova Scotia |
| Sakku | Coral Harbour | Nunavut |
| Firgrove Public School | North York | Ontario |
| Connaught Public School | St. Catharines | Ontario |
| Blaydon Public School | North York | Ontario |
| Major Ballachey School | Brantford | Ontario |
| Grenoble Public School | North York | Ontario |
| F.D. Roosevelt Public School | London | Ontario |
| Queen Mary School | Hamilton | Ontario |
| Sinclair Laird Elementary School | Montreal | Quebec |
| École Notre-Dame | Gatineau | Quebec |
| Confederation Park Community School | Saskatoon | Saskatchewan |
| Dr. Brass School | Yorkton | Saskatchewan |
| Hector Thiboutot Community School | Sandy Bay | Saskatchewan |
About First Book Canada
By making new, high quality books and educational resources available on an ongoing basis, First Book Canada is transforming the lives of children and elevating the quality of education in the country. Since 2009, First Book Canada has distributed over 6 million new books to hundreds of thousands of children in need across Canada. For more information, or to register for books, visit us at firstbookcanada.org and follow our latest news on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation
Indigo Books & Music Inc. founded the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation in 2004 to address the underfunding of public elementary school libraries. To date, the Foundation has committed $28 million to more than 3,000 high-needs schools, impacting over 900,000 children. The Foundation runs two signature programs each year. In May 2018, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation Literacy Fund grants committed $1.5 million to 30 high-needs elementary schools that lack the resources to build and maintain healthy school libraries. To date, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation’s Literacy Fund has committed $21 million to more than 275 schools nationally. Additionally, each fall, the Foundation’s annual grassroots Adopt a School program unites the Foundation with Indigo, its employees, its customers and their communities to raise funds to support high-needs elementary schools across Canada and put even more books into the hands of children. In October 2017, the Indigo Adopt a School program contributed over $1 million to more than 550 schools across Canada, impacting more than 185,000 children. To learn more about the Foundation, visit www.loveofreading.org.
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[1]Susan B. Neuman, Naomi Moland. “Book Deserts.” Urban Education, 2016. DOI: 10.1177/0042085916654525