Chestermere’s Public Library is looking for the public’s help to win provincial bragging rights in the Read For 15 challenge on Family Literacy Day Jan. 27.
“It sounds like a really fun thing to do,” said Chestermere Public Library Assistant Director Cathy Burness.
“We’re in it to win it,” she said.
Read for 15 is a challenge to promote reading by pitting communities against each other in a tongue-in-cheek challenge to see which municipality can get the largest percentage of its population to read for a minimum of 15 minutes on Jan. 27.
Chestermere’s Mayor Patricia Matthews is supportive of getting people in the community reading.
“Chestermere is such an engaged community and reading for just 15 minutes benefits everyone,”
Both the Library and Matthews are taking the competition seriously.
“I hope we can show the other competing communities how much we support this idea, and win, of course!
“I’ve always thought we were #1, it would be great for other municipalities to know it too- in the spirit of friendly competition, of course,” said Matthews.
People are being encouraged to read and then contact the library to be added to the records for competition. Readers of all ages are encouraged to participate.
“Contact us via e-mail or phone or they can come in…and let us know that they have read for 15 minutes,” said Burness.
At the end of the day, librarians will tally the total number of readers for the day and find out what percentage of Chestermere’s population took part in the challenge.
The library has chosen to participate in the Read for 15 challenge as a fun way to promote literacy in Chestermere.
“We want to encourage people to read,” said Burness.
“It doesn’t have to be high level reading it just has to be reading,” she said.
Burness hasn’t decided yet what she will be reading for the challenge but is leaning towards one book in particular.
“Probably the Brain Warriors Way,” she said, “that’s probably what I’m taking home next.”
The book is about ways to keep one’s brain healthy.
Matthews said that she is in the middle of a class and the course readings will take more than the 15 minutes of the challenge.
She is reading a book for fun too.
“I’m reading The Sixth Extinction, an unnatural history by Elizabeth Kolbert,” said Matthews.
In addition to the bragging rights, the library is also interested to find out how many and how much people are reading in the community.
“We have roughly 50 per cent membership in the library so we know there’s a lot of readers out there,” she said.
To encourage participation, Burness has been promoting the challenge to the schools in the community.
The library got a late start to advertising the challenge but hopes it will be a success and can grow next year.
“We’re hoping for some good support this year,” said Burness.
