Local libraries will beef up their book count this week as the Alberta Prairie C.O.W. makes its way to five different communities in the area.
“There’s nothing like a big school bus, painted like a cow, to have people say, ‘What’s that?’” said Carol-Lee Lowe, family literacy facilitator with the Henday Association for Lifelong Learning in Innisfail of the bus, or classroom on wheels, that is open to the public.
Lowe said the Henday Centre sponsors the bus’s appearance every two to three years. In exchange, facilitators with the bus, from the Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton, donate 50 books to communities it visits.
“They’ll actually donate a new set of library books to each of the communities that have libraries.
“It may be that the donation is split between two communities just depending on size and population and whether they have a library. But they will come bearing books.”
Besides catching people’s eyes and donating new books, the purpose of C.O.W. is to provide fun ways to learn and explore ways to add literacy into children’s daily lives. It gives parents a chance to get new ideas for family literacy at home and promotes oral language development.
“There’s all sorts of learning-based activities that people can come in and participate in … There’s books and games and all sorts of puzzles,” she said as examples. Lowe and a co-worker will travel with co-ordinators of the bus program. They’ll be stopping at all of the communities they usually visit each week with their current programming.
“Then it’s open to the community so we’ve got some classrooms that are scheduled to come out and visit.
“We’re hoping to hit as many families as we can just to raise that whole awareness of family literacy and all the things we can do as families in homes to help our children be successful.”
The bus made its first stop yesterday morning in Spruce View outside the school library. This morning it visited Delburne and plans to stop this evening in Springbrook. Wednesday morning the bus will be in Bowden and Sylvan Lake in the afternoon. Thursday the bus makes two stops in the morning and in the evening from 5 to 7. Its final stop will be outside the multiplex Friday morning in Penhold.
“Springbrook and Pine Lake are actually new communities for us to actually service, so this will be the first time we’ve arranged to have bus there. It is pretty exciting,” she said.
