GuelphToday is once again sharing the gift of reading this holiday season.
Each year, GuelphToday collects book donations in support of the Salvation Army at a Guelph Storm home game with its Books for Kids campaign.
The campaign, which GuelphToday has spearheaded for the last five years, calls on the Guelph community to donate new, unwrapped books that are suitable for children.
The books are then distributed through the Salvation Army’s Christmas hamper program, which supports families in need.
The program helps to ensure that all children have access to opportunities to develop their literacy skills and unlock the full potential of their imagination.
Over the weekend, Guelph Storm fans attending the Storm vs. Eerie Otters game at the Sleeman Centre showed their support for the cause. We are thrilled to announce we collected 600 books from the fans who attended the game.
These 600 books are in addition to the $6,000 worth of books donated to the program by Guelph’s ‘Book Angel.’
The anonymous donor buys $6,000 worth of books at The Bookshelf, which are then distributed through the hamper program. The Bookshelf discounts the purchase so that even more books can be donated, extending the reach of this important community initiative.
"The program is important to the community, now more than ever, because so many families rely on the hamper program to help make Christmas special," said Liz O'Donnell, General Manager at GuelphToday. "Last year in Guelph, over 1,000 children received hampers and every single child got at least one book, that's pretty cool!"
At GuelphToday, we strive to strengthen the communities that we serve. Programs like this and support from our community members and partners help us to do just that.
From all of us at GuelphToday, we would like to say thank you to the community for making this program so successful year after year.
GuelphToday would also like to give a special thank you to Michael Kalu for doing our Books for Kids video.
