You won’t be seeing volunteers gathering donations throughout town for this years’ Postmedia Raise a Reader, but those who wish to donate can still do so on Sept. 23 at Buy-Low from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
As well, this year, Kerry Milner-Cairns, literacy outreach coordinator, said she will be accepting electronic donations for those who don’t have cash on hand but would still like to contribute. There is also a portal on canadahelps.org where people can donate to the Raise a Reader campaign in their community.
Later that evening, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the annual adult spelling bee will be held at the Dutch Lake Community Centre in the gymnasium. Because of COVID-19 protocols, however, the bee will not be able to allow public to attend as the limit for gatherings is 50 people.
As previous years, teams are made up of four people and the entire team helps to spell out their words. Spell correctly and your team moves forward — but miss a letter and you lose a balloon!
Milner-Cairns said each team is supplied with a balloon to start, if costumes are worn another balloon will be given and teams can purchase balloons to stay in the game. This years’ spelling bee theme is superheroes/villians — one that is mask-friendly.
Raise a Reader day raises money to support literacy in the area. Funds raised will go towards supporting programs such as: youth, adult and ESL tutoring; language classes; library books for school children; robotics; Bright Red Bookshelves; Lego workshops; one-to-one reading and many others.
To register for the adult spelling bee or if you’d like to reach out for more information, contact Kerry Milner-Cairns at kerry.c@yellowheadcs.ca or 250-674-2257.