INNISFAIL – The Innisfail Library/Learning Centre is the site for town and area residents to celebrate literacy during the 2nd annual Family Literacy Festival.
The event takes places on Family Literacy Day, Jan 27, at the library from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"The Innisfail library is teaming up with the Henday Association for Lifelong Learning and the Envision Children Innisfail coalition for our annual Family Literacy Festival,” said Sara Kepper, library manager. "All three of us are planning this event.”
There will be both returning activities, as well as several new ones.
"Last year we had our Manga artist teleconference from Japan. The same artist has agreed to do it again this year and Red Deer College makersspace is coming back again with their robotics,” she said. "We’re expanding their area so they will be able to bring us more (displays).
Kepper also noted a new feature to the literacy festival.
"We are going to also do stations this year,” she said, noting a variety of activities for children of different ages, and families. "We’re going to have a sensory corner for the younger kids.
"We also wanted to include some of the older kids so we’re doing a station on blackout poetry and a little makerspace to make things out of duct tape,” explained Kepper.
The stations will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., providing an opportunity for children and families to rotate through the different stations, she noted.
They will also have a reading corner this year from 2 to 3 p.m. that will include several guests reading to children. Participants include the Innisfail mayor Jim Romane, a member of the Innisfail RCMP detachment and Gary Leith, the town’s fire chief.
Members of town council will also be on hand serving barbecued hotdogs and refreshments from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
"Family Literacy Day was developed so that families could get together and celebrate literacy,” said Kepper. "The Henday association, the library and the children’s coalition feel strongly about literacy and we want to help promote it.”
For more information call the library at 403-227-4407 or the Henday association at 403-227-2866 or visit the Innisfail Public Library’s Facebook page.
Sara Kepper, library manager
"The Henday association, the library and the children's coalition feel strongly about literacy and we want to promote it."
