The Bright Lights Book Project: Leaping into Literacy
Contributed by Alys Culhane
The Bright Lights Book Project mission is to put free books into the hands of appreciative readers. The BLBP’s vision statement reads: Envisioning the power of literacy to change lives.
In its three years as a nonprofit 501 (c) (3), the BLBP has, in distributing books locally and statewide, further defined a more indirect, and broad-based definition of literacy. Book-related conversations are now taking place daily at BLBP bookcases, repurposed newspaper boxes, and little libraries. In addition, these conversations are taking place at BLBP in-house and community events.
Stories beget stories. It is then that connections with others are made. Connections then affirm the importance of reading, both to oneself and to others. And children, when they take a book in hand, and later read it, are increasing the likelihood that they will end up with a larger world view than those who bypass this opportunity.
The BLBP has laid a strong foundation in honoring its mission statement. It’s now time in honoring its vision statement to build the house. And so it’s with this in mind that the BLBP will, on October 29, host an event that we are calling Leap into Literacy. This will take place at the Palmer Train Depot, starting at 12:30 p.m. Our primary purpose is to call attention to the fact that we’ll soon be offering community literacy classes and holding more literacy-related events. It takes a village, and our village consists of partners who think as we do, which is in working together, we can make Alaska literate again.
Some of our partners, and their event contributions follow:
The Palmer Public Library will hold its weekly Baby Lap Sit (0-2) at 10 a.m. and its story time (2-5) at 11 a.m. Lunch will be served at 12:30 a.m. Franz Bakery will be serving grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, Kid’s Kupboard will be serving healthy snacks, and Kaladi Brothers will be providing coffee.
On-site partners will include The Palmer Lion’s Club who will be providing free vision screening. Alaska Family Services and The Palmer United Way will be on site.
Children will have the opportunity to read to dogs, and at 2 p.m. Molly of Denali will join The Not ready for Storytime players to provide entertainment to a varied audience.
We all hope to see you there!
