Ann Day recently received the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy’s Community Literacy Award, placing ahead of seven other nominees.
Following in the footsteps of winners Vicky Koenig and Family Place (2011) and Kootenay Employment Services (2010), a round of public voting ranked Day ahead of nominees Kathy Tompkins, Linda Price, Henry Schoof, Margaret Basaraba, Teresa Caruso and Coral Buchholz.
“This community has repaid me a million times for the work I did,” said Day. “This just blows me away.”
As chief librarian of the Creston and District Public Library from 2005-2012, she broadened the library’s collection to promote literacy to young adults and children, and encouraged computer literacy among all ages.
For the last couple of years, she has also organized a book club for Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS) members. About 10 women form a core group in the club, which meets each Tuesday to read chapters aloud, and discuss the book they’re reading.
“They’re voracious. They read the whole gamut of books,” said Day, from Catherine Cookson to early Saskatchewan history.
Her inspiration for the program came from a couple of sources. Genevieve, a library patron and TAPS member, asked her about a book club one day at the library. The library’s club wasn’t geared to seniors, so at the suggestion of local author Tanna Patterson and with the help of TAPS co-ordinator Bridget Currie, the seniors club was started.
“It’s a group effort,” she said.
Through work and volunteering, Day has appreciated the chance to encourage literacy in the Creston Valley, hoping to pass on some of the excitement she felt when the school librarian read The Hobbit to Day’s Grade 3 class.
“I met all aspects of Creston because of literacy,” said Day. “I met all the people that reading really means something to.”