A Book Bank Indeed!
July 1, 2008 | Community News | Archive 2008
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Lending Library a Reality as CIBC Invests in Day of Caring.
Staff at a community resource centre in St. Vital have long dreamed of building a lending library at their Marlene Street location. Now it's an idea they can take to the bank.
The Marlene Street Tenant Advisory Council operates a food bank, used clothing depot, computer lab, and kids project and serves a 98 suite, 300 person Manitoba Housing complex.
While the families in the apartments and town-houses have changed over the years, the story residents have been telling remains the same-when given a choice between toys and books, their children more often reach for the books.
"When parents read, it encourages kids to model the behaviour and it's a great family activity," says Christie Fischer, the resource centre coordinator. "Having a lending library on site will encourage literacy and family connectedness."
She hopes it will draw families to the centre, connecting them with staff and other resources.
Christie mentioned the idea to Barb Brown, United Way's Day of Caring Manager. Within two months of that conversation, Barb was on the phone to Christie to advise that she had found a project partner in CIBC.
"I was really impressed that they took such an interest," Christie says.
CIBC has a strong corporate philosophy of community involvement. The branches participate in United Way's annual campaign and try to coordinate at least two Day of Carings each year.
Doing a book drive as a Day of Caring was an opportunity to build awareness and generate excitement says Janice Keddie and Colleen Todd who helped coordinate it across the branches.
"It was a great project because every staff member could participate," Colleen says.
And participate they did! Each branch posted graphs tracking progress and the sorting depot at the Retail Operations Centre provided daily counts. Even a branch outside the city, in Arbourg, started sending book collections through the internal mail bag system when they learned of the initiative.
In a 2-week period, their collected efforts resulted in an astounding 2500 books gathered for the Marlene Street Resource Centre lending library where families will benefit from a wealth of reading material right on their doorstep.
The next chapter of the story takes place in the fall when CIBC's workplace campaign begins. Staff are encouraged to take tours of United Way agency partners and there are no surprise endings here...they're already booked to visit the Marlene Street centre.
"It'll be like visiting the CIBC library," joked Colleen.
Thank you CIBC! Your excitement and enthusiasm spells a brighter future for families, children and youth in St. Vital.
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