Public Service
Announcement
Peterson Library is
seeking community assistance
The Dutton S. Peterson Memorial Library Children’s
Librarian & Board of Trustees member, Bonnie Schweizer, and her
Pre-School Story Hour Assistant and fellow Board member, Bonnie Seeley,
are seeking community individuals/groups who would volunteer to build
two Bright Red Bookshelves.
The two women have secured two new sites in Schuyler
County at which Bright Red Bookshelves will be placed. The two new
sites are: the ER Waiting Room at Schuyler Hospital and the Main Waiting
Room of Primary Care, both located in Montour Falls. (There are currently
two Bright Red Bookshelves in Schuyler County; one is situated in
the Schuyler Head Start Office and the other in the Schuyler Youth
Bureau Office.)
Inspiration, advice, & valuable assistance for
this project has come from the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung
Valley.
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Background
The Family Reading Partnership is a non-profit community organization
that promotes early literacy. We are a broad-based coalition of individuals,
businesses, schools, libraries and other organizations. We have joined
forces to "create a culture of literacy" by promoting family
reading practices throughout our community.
We know that literacy…the ability to read, write and communicate
clearly…will define a child's future success in school and in
life. We also know that literacy development, the process that brings
children to reading, begins in the first years of life at home. Long
before children enter school, early experiences with books build a
strong foundation for learning. We strive to incorporate family reading
awareness and books into networks and services that already touch
the lives of families.
Overview of Family Reading
Partnership of Chemung Valley
The Bright Red Bookshelf program utilizes gently used books, collected
by FRPCV, and distributes them on Bright Red Bookshelves throughout
the community at permanent locations. In addition to the books at
the self- sustaining sites, last year we delivered 8,000 books to
Bright Red Bookshelf sites. Gently-used books collected for our program
throughout the region over the past year total 11,058. Contributors
include schools, businesses, agencies/organizations (state & private),
hospitals, churches, labor unions, and individual donations from families.
Objectives
--Increases book ownership by families.
--Encourages parent-child interactions with books.
--Involves community members in this literacy effort through book
donations.
--Enhances the services of organizations serving as bookshelf hosts
by providing books to the families they already serve.
--Keeps books circulating in the community so that “No children’s
book is ever lonely.”
Book ownership is important in fostering an interest in reading
and a love for books. If parents are to read to their children, they
need the books to do so. Children feel pride in owning their own books.
They develop confidence in reading and acquire mastery when books
are easily within reach and can be read again and again. We believe
that each book a child owns is an “appetizer” to library
use.
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The “Two Bonnies” now have as their goal locating one
or two volunteers (or groups of volunteers) to build the two needed
Bright Red Bookshelves. One of the two current existing Bright Red
Bookshelves will be used as a prototype.
If you are interested in assisting with this very worthy volunteer
project, please contact Librarian Gayle Greuber at the Library (607-594-2791),
Bonnie Schweizer at 607-594-3360, or Bonnie Seeley at 607-594-2588.
PLEASE NOTE: Perhaps
there is a Boy Scout who is looking to undertake an Eagle Scout project…a
Girl Scout troop which might like to become involved…a retired
individual with a talent for carpentry and a generous amount of time…YOU
might be THE ONE who helps to bring this project to its next level!