What's New
These photos show moms celebrating their new Board books and book bags thanks to a collaborative partnership with County Kids Read, Friends of the Wellington Library, and the PEC health team. This baby group meets weekly at Wellington United Church under the direction of Peggy Neil, Family Outreach Nurse.
Every County family with a newborn will receive a book bag containing a Board book, literacy activities, and information on County Kids Read and the County of Prince Edward Public Libraries.
On April 20 grade 5 students at Queen Elizabeth School were treated to a wonderful presentation by Kean Soo about how he came to be, and the fascinating mechanics of being a graphic novelist. Born in England and raised in Hong Kong, Kean Soo settled in Canada, where he planned to embark on a career in electrical engineering. However, he discovered that he'd rather draw comics instead. Kean began posting his comics on the internet in 2002, and later became an assistant editor and regular contributor to the all-ages FLiGHT anthologies. His online work has been nominated for several awards, including an Eisner Award nomination for Jellaby. His latest graphic novel is March Grand Prix: the Fast and the Furriest. This visit was sponsored and made possible by County Kids Read and the County of Prince Edward Public Library.
Photo by Peggy deWitt
St John's Anglican Church in Waupoos presents a cheque from the Apple Blossom Festival to County Kids Read. Shown from left to right are Anne Preston (County Kids Read), Rev. Ada Clifton, Brenda Hellyer (one of the Apple Blossom organizers) and Jenifer Dean from County Cider Company, who hosted the Apple Blossom Festival in 2017. This year’s Apple Blossom Festival will be held in May.
County Kids Read will be partnering with the food bank at the Salvation Army church in Picton.
Barbara Wallace from County Kids Read and Sandra Brighton from the Salvation Army stand beside the basket of books at the food bank at the Salvation Army on Elizabeth Street in Picton. Families and children visiting the food bank are encouraged to choose a free book to take home.
Each week The Storehouse Foodbank is able to give out children’s books that are supplied to us by County Kids Read. The families love the books and have told us over and over how they have helped their children learn to read better. The books have also helped the adults read better too! We are so grateful to County Kids Read for helping our clients.
On Monday, January 15th County Kids Read and Sophiasburgh Public School launched a new partnership. Every student in the school received a free book to call his or her own. Classes came to the library to choose their books. Before choosing their books, the students were read a story and discussed how to choose a "just right book". When asked why reading was important, student answers included "to learn more information", "to have an adventure", and this from grade 4/5 student, "because reading is fun". And fun it was - a delightful morning!
Each month County Kids Read will visit the two or three classes to distribute free books and have fun.
If you are reading this you have found our new website! We hope that you find it easy to navigate, pleasing to look at, and informative about County Kids Read. The website is an invaluable tool for us to communicate with you, but we also encourage you to use it to communicate with us. We are excited about the website, but it wouldn’t have come about without the infectious enthusiasm, artistic flare, and tech-savvy help of Sarah Selecky and Janna Smith, and the support of the PEC Arts Council. Kudos and thanks from County Kids Read!
This summer County Kids Read applied for support from St. Andrew’s Anglican Parish in Wellington. Recently, we were very surprised and grateful to receive a generous gift from their Endowment Fund. Because of this gift we are able to obtain much needed board books for infants and toddlers as well as graphic novels for older children. Many thanks to St. Andrew’s Anglican Parish of Kente!
At The Maker's Hand, Arlene Wilkinson from Nightingales Spa approached Anne Preston to let her know that a group of women in Bloomfield (they called themselves B-6) had for many years put together funds to create Christmas baskets for Alternatives for Women. As the years progressed, many members of the group moved away from Bloomfield, but Arlene and Caroline Shuttle carried on with the tradition. This year, they decided to donate some money to the Alternatives Christmas dinner and some money to County Kids Read - to our great delight! Many thanks Arlene and Caroline.
Also a big thank you to Carolynn Whiteley and the Milford Tai Chi group for their donation to County Kids Read.
County Kids Read was the featured charity at this year’s The Maker’s Hand, an annual show and sale in Picton featuring artisans from eastern Ontario and Quebec, organized by the Prince Edward County Arts Council. Being part of such an established show was both an honour and an opportunity to spread the word about our program. The draw for a basket of children's books was won by Sandra Clark. Congratulations Sandra!
We will be able to purchase books with the money donated by people who visited our table. We are particularly in need of board books for very young children, early reader books, chapter books and non-fiction books.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support of our program.
