Sarnia’s Family Literacy Day Festival returns Jan. 25 with free events at the downtown library and the public art gallery.
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Entertainment, crafts and other activities run from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, said Vanitia Campbell with the Lambton County Library.
“Everything is free, at both sites,” she said.
“When the whole family participates in literacy activities together, it supports the literacy of the entire family,” Campbell said. “Adult literacy is improved. Child literacy is improved.”
Along with reading together, family literacy activities can include such things as cooking together which can involve reading a recipe and measuring ingredients, as well as playing board games, she said.
Last year was the first time Family Literacy Day events were held at the Sarnia library and the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery, in place of outdoor events organized previous years by local agencies.
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“January is just kind of a tricky time of year to do something outdoors,” Campbell said. “We decided, ‘Let’s try to move this indoors.’”
She said organizers didn’t know what type of reaction to expect last year but, compared to about 100 or so attendees at previous outdoor activities, 550 showed up at the library and another 180 at the art gallery.
“We decided, ‘You know what? It worked,’” and the decision was made to go with an indoor event again this year, Campbell said.
Community partners supporting literacy also take part, including EarlyOn Centres. the Parent Professional Resource Center at Lambton College, the Ska:na Family Learning Centre, Lambton Public Health, Literacy Lambton, BGC Sarnia-Lambton, and the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, Campbell said.
“It’s really an event for the community to showcase all of the ways that literacy is supported in accessible ways,” Campbell said.
Also, District Beta will be there with VR and retro games, plus there will be face painting, henna artists, popcorn by the Kiwanis Club of Sarnia Golden K and performances by Dan the Music Man who entertained the library theater last year and was “a really big hit,” Campbell said.
Details of the event can be found online at www.llibrary.ca.
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