One of the goals of the Powell River Literacy Council is to raise awareness about the importance of literacy, and to help share information about how increased literacy can help improve our lives, and our community as a whole.

Each year we run awareness campaigns that involve community members - and all of them portray literacy in a positive way. These campaigns have been very successful, with lots of positive feedback.

2011 Campaigns:

1) GET CAUGHT READING: Catch someone you know reading in an unusual place, snap a picture of them and send it in to Literacy Outreach Coordinator Emma Larocque for the chance to win a monthly prize (from May thru to December 2011)! This campaign is sponsored by the Powell River Literacy Council and the Peak Newspaper. Click here to find out more.

2) NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN: The encouragement of lifelong learning is an important initiative of the Powell River Literacy Council, and this campaign recognizes individuals who are making an effort to improve themselves by learning something new, later in life. This campaign is carried out by the Powell River Literacy Council and supported by Powell River Living Magazine. Click here to find out more.

2010 Campaigns:

1) HEROES READ: this was a 10-month poster campaign which saw a different community member highlighted on a READ poster as a reading hero. That reading hero went into the schools, or to a popular children's event, to talk about how literacy impacts his/her life and work, and to encourage young children to think of reading/writing/math in a positive and practical light. Click here to see the posters and read more about this campaign.

2) BOOKCROSSING: this is a wonderful activity that was made popular by the site www.bookcrossing.com, and is enjoyed by people of all ages across the globe. In 2010 we made a big effort to help start BookCrossing in Powell River and area. In partnership with the Powell River Public Library we gave away hundreds of books, asking people to register and bookcross them when they were finished, and we now have a thriving bookcrossing community in this town! We have several BookCrossing stations set up around town where people can get supplies and from which people can take or leave books. Click here to see more about this campaign.

3) READ PROGRAM: In collaboration with First Insurance and the Powell River Kings Hockey Association, the Powell River Literacy Council was proud to be a part of this campaign for the 2010-11 year, and to help make the program bigger and better than ever. Each week, from October thru February, Kings hockey players went into each of the elementary schools in Powell River to read with kids, and to play some road hockey with them. Kids love this opportunity to spend time with people they really look up to. In addition this year, each week the Kings announced a Reading Hero at each school. Each Reading Hero received two tickets for a Kings Game and a $10 gift certificate from Breakwater Books - and the chance to win a grand prize. At the end of the program two names were drawn, and two lucky reading heroes won a helicopter ride and were featured on the last Heroes Read poster! The winners were announced at a First Insurance-sponsored hockey game in mid-February. A great program with lots of positive feedback from kids, parents, principals and teachers! Click here for more info about this program.