Swans District President Joyce Mahovlich recently presented Wheatley Library with 95 brand-new children’s books collected at the Nov. 26 District 1 Swans Cabinet Meeting. Her project this past year has been Literacy.
This donation was in addition to a cheque presented to Claudette Sykes of the Wheatley Library from the Wheatley Swans Club to purchase additional brand-new children’s books for the Chatham-Kent library system.
President Joyce commented that 48% of adult Canadians have literacy skills that fall below a high school level, which negatively affects their ability to function at work and in their personal lives. The assessment found that the percentage of adults with unsuitable literacy skills (48%) has increased notably over the past 10 years. 17% of adults function at the lowest level where they experience daily challenges such as a) filling out any type of order forms; b) difficulties following instructions on medicine bottles; c) completing a job application form; d) using on-line banking; e) completing the on-line application for Employment Insurance; and f) reading any type of signs either at work or in their everyday lives.
Donations such as those presented to Wheatley Library will help defeat illiteracy – one word, one line, one book at a time.