North West Regional College is celebrating its 40th anniversary year and a program initiated in 1992 is being revived to help celebrate it.
The program is called Born to Read. The idea is to provide a board book and accompanying bag to every baby born within the region served by North West Regional College, including the hospitals in North Battleford and Meadow Lake.
The initiative is being revived for this year only as a way to celebrate the anniversary year. It was announced at a launch event at NWRC Friday, an event attended by Mayor Ian Hamilton, MLA Herb Cox and Ann McArthur, from the college鈥檚 board of governors.
Tavia Laliberte, president and CEO of North West Regional College, told reporters the college has been focused on getting people ready for the economy 鈥渨hich is really important and the bulk of the work that we do at the college.鈥�
鈥淏ut as we were thinking of ways to celebrate our 40 years, it was an opportunity to be reminded ourselves that a lot of that work and a lot of that ability to feed the economy starts at a really early age, starts with literacy. So it was a chance to bring back some of the family literacy programs that we鈥檝e successfully done in the past.鈥�
The book is called Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns by Richard Van Camp. It includes plenty of pictures and Laliberte describes it as something caregivers can read with their babies.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just got a really nice story in it about joy and it鈥檚 kind of a lullaby so it鈥檚 a bit of a poem with lots of pictures,鈥� said Laliberte.
So far, she said, the reaction has been positive. Caregivers were 鈥渞eally excited鈥� to receive the book and share it with their babies.
Pamela Plummer, nursing manager of BUH Women鈥檚 Health and Birthing Unit, Prairie North Health Region, confirmed the enthusiastic reaction from the recipients.
鈥淚鈥檝e been around to the moms who have gotten them 鈥攎oms and the dads 鈥� and they absolutely love the book,鈥� Plummer said.
