Children
The Gift of Reading®
Project background
Seeking to set up a unifying project that would have an impact on illiteracy and enable the public to make a yearly gesture, a gift to reach the Literacy Foundation’s target clientele, Sophie Labrecque, the Foundation’s former Chief Executive Officer, had the original idea for the Gift of Reading® project. The project was defined during the infamous ice storm in 1998, in conjunction with some teacher friends Sophie was sheltering. It was a true revelation, as well as representing a commitment from all the partners with a natural link with reading: authors, publishers, bookstore owners, librarians, educators and readers. Starting in 1994, and based on its research on Family and literacy, the Foundation became one of the first to be interested in prevention and, in the past 10 years, with The Gift of Reading®, to reach hundreds of underprivileged families at risk of illiteracy.
With this project, the Foundation has placed itself at the very source of the problem of illiteracy by implementing concrete steps to reach the subjects at highest risk: children aged 0–12. It introduces a recreational device to families while attracting the attention of the parent who is a weak or occasional reader, whom the Foundation can also help through the Info-Alpha referral line.
By giving the gift of reading, we are giving far more than words alone: we are giving a child the power to act and influence his world according to his dreams.
For almost ten years, 195,000 poor children have received
the gift of a brand new book!
*The 1999-2000 edition of the project was held in Metropolitan Montreal only, while subsequent editions took place across Quebec.
 |
1999-2000Put a sparkle in a child’s eye, he’ll remember your gift for the rest of his life. The project was held in Metropolitan Montreal only, and enabled the Foundation to give out more than 2,041 brand new children’s books to underprivileged children. |
|
|
2000-2001Put a sparkle in an underprivileged child’s eye! Finalist in the “Public Service” category for a 2001 Équinoxe Award from the Quebec public relations society (Société des relationnistes du Québec). |
|
 |
2001-2002Give a child the means to dream in colour
|
|
|
2002-2003Need a new book Reading Day |
|
|
2003-2004Fill in the blank by giving The Gift of Reading®! Thanks to publisher Moulinsart, the Foundation was able to use the Tintin visual free of charge in Canada for its The Gift of Reading® project. This raised the profile of the project and, of course, the Foundation. An offshoot of the main campaign, a parallel campaign was run with the image of an empty speech bubble, representing what illiterate individuals experience every day. To celebrate the project’s fifth anniversary, The Gift of Reading® invited well-known storyteller Kim Yaroshevskaya for its launch at the Monument National.
|
|
|
2004-2005Embrace our cause: Buy a brand new book for a needy child A frog wearing a crown invited the public to embrace our cause, not the cause of this fairy tale character, but the cause of literacy! Just as the frog turned into a prince, the Foundation hoped these children would become adults for whom the written world would no longer hold any secrets.
|
|
|
2005-2006Embrace our cause: Buy a first brand new book for a needy child For the second year in a row, the little girl and the frog greeted the public in bookstores, at Montreal's Salon du livre, and in numerous companies and organizations which mobilized their teams to collect books and donations. |
|
|
2006-2007Embrace our cause: Buy a first brand new book for a needy child The Foundation benefited from the support of a new spokesperson for The Gift of Reading®, actress Marie Turgeon. This sparkling woman loved the project and gave generously of her time, granting dozens of media interviews and meeting the public at Montreal’s Salon du livre and in bookstores in Quebec City, Mauricie and Estrie. |
|
 |
2007-2008A record number of 27,755 books were distributed during this 9th edition, bringing to more than 165,000 in almost 10 years the number of children who have received the gift of a first brand new book! |
|
|
2008-2009Donors from all 10 editions of The Gift of Reading® can be proud, because through their contributions, 195,000 children’s books are still circulating in as many underprivileged homes. |
Honorary chair, The Gift of Reading®
1999-2004
Jean-Claude Germain
 |
Author, director, actor, lecturer, columnist and story-teller, Jean-Claude Germain is well known as a leading advocade for Quebec culture and heritage. In 2001, he was decorated with the Ordre de la Pléiade and awarded the Fleury-Mesplet prize for his significant contribution to the promotion of publishing and reading. Holding books and children close to his heart, he was the honorary chair of The Gift of Reading® from its inception in 1999 to 2004. An active, committed individual, he penned several original texts associated with the theme of each edition of the project. In 2002, a distinguished campaign committee comprising project partners was formed to support the illiteracy prevention project. |
“Generally speaking, we associate childhood memories with emotional experiences, and we ignore the presence of objects as closely associated with early childhood as the walking stick is to old age. In order of appearance, these significant objects are three in number: the blankie, the stuffed toy, and the first book. Of this trinity of sacred objects, only the book is never replaced. Indeed, the older we become, the greater is its power. Of all the experiences of our existence, the practice of reading is one of the few which, in youth as in old age, produces or reproduces the same joy and the same euphoria of being in a place where imagination has true power. Giving the gift of reading is an unequalled opportunity to make another voice heard in the excessively rational world of school, that of the joy of reading and of joy, period. Giving the gift of reading is to write imagination in large letters across the top of the blackboard and to slip the joy of words into the schoolbags.”