The Parkview Activity Centre on the North Shore is the temporary new home for the Bright Red Bookshelf program (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

LITERACY IN KAMLOOPS

New space gives new life to Bright Red Bookshelf program in Kamloops

Sep 23, 2019 | 3:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — After uncertainty about its future following the Parkcrest fire, Literacy in Kamloops (LinK) has found a new home for the popular Bright Red Bookshelf program.

The program will now be housed out of the Parkview Community Centre across from McDonald Park. The City of Kamloops stepped up and dedicated a room to the program. Thousands of books have been stored on the stage at the new Parkcrest Elementary school at George Hilliard since the fire happened.

There was concern LinK may have to shut down the program, but the temporary new space has given it new life.

“Thanks to the media coverage getting our story out there, it came to the attention of one of the city managers, Barbara Berger, and she contacted one of our community members, Kari, who also works for the city. They came up with this perfect solution for us,” said literacy outreach coordinator with LinK Fiona Clare.

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The school district had offer up some space at David Thompson Elementary in Westsyde, but it wasn’t ideal for volunteers with stairs required to store the books.

At the Parkview Community Centre, the program will also be able to rent the building’s main space to clean and sort books when needed. The Bright Red Bookself program gives students opportunities to pick up books for free and read.

“Sometimes people worry their children aren’t reading anymore, but we gave out 14,000 book to our bookshelves last year,” noted Clare. “Every year, basically for the last 10 years, we’ve been giving out thousands of books, so those books are finding ways into homes. And we know children need to have their own books at home that they can read over and over.”

Clare says the books will be transferred into the new space by the end of the week.