The Chestermere Public Library is encouraging everyone to settle into their favourite chair and read for at least 15 minutes on January 26 or 27.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re reading the back of a cereal box or your reading 15 minutes of War and Peace, if you’re reading, you’re reading,” said Library Deputy Director Cathy Burness.
Read for 15 grew out of an idea that the Northwest Territory Literary Council had in 2017.
“What happened was the Northwest Territory Literary Council decided to have this challenge which is the read for 15 to celebrate literacy,” said Burness.
Read for 15 encourages residents to read for at least 15 minutes on either January 26 or 27 and the report your reading to the library so they can track how many people were reading.
In Chestermere, residents can report their reading in almost any way they can imagine.
“We’ve set up a system so they can report their minutes online,” said Burness.
People can also comment or message the library on Instagram or Facebook, tweet, call in or report in person on either day.
The program encourages literacy and participation through friendly competition between libraries.
“It’s all done tongue in cheek,” said Burness, “but it’s a fun thing to do.”
Libraries winning bragging rights for the year based on the per cent of their city’s population that read for at least 15 minutes on the competition day.
When Chestermere’s public Library heard about the challenge they jumped on the opportunity to participate, but with very little time to prepare didn’t expect to have a very good showing.
Despite the lack of preparation, Chestermere managed to get 268 residents or about 1.3 per cent of the city’s population to report their reading.
While to some this might seem like a particularly small number, it was enough to earn Chestermere a higher place in the standings than the City of Calgary, a feat Burness would like to see repeated this year.
“We were surprised at how high the participation was considering it wasn’t that well advertised,” she said.
To this end, the library has recruited many of the local schools to help track and report the reading of their students on Jan. 26 for Read for 15.
While the kids can only report their reading on one of the two competition days, having the schools on board to both encourage reading and to track it should give a boost to the library’s numbers this year.
They are also holding an extra story time on January 27 for kids read for the competition.
While it doesn’t matter what one decides to read for the competition, Burness said that anyone looking for something to read should come down to the library and check out the new releases section.
“I would say check the new books and the lucky day collection,” she said.
Burness encourages all residents to follow the hashtag #readfor15Chestermere to see who’s reading during the competition.
