Julie Letkeman ready for the first book buggy drive (Image: Saint John Book Buggy Facebook)
A Saint John mother is helping foster a love of books and literacy through the Saint John Book Buggy.
Julie Letkeman recalled living in Kamloops, British Columbia, where it has traditional visits from the Bright Red Book Bus. The travelling school bus would often been seen touring playgrounds every summer and give out free books while working with the local school district and community organizations to buy new books.
“It was such a fantastic project, I wanted to start that here because I know that that literacy in New Brunswick isn’t fantastic and I just wanted to make sure that all the kids had some books and access to books,” says Letkeman.
The Saint John and Area Book Buggy has received over 400 high-quality book donations since she created its Facebook page and shared about the program across multiple local Facebook groups.
The donated books include picture books, French-language books, early reader, tween and teen books.
Saint John Book Buggy’s sorted donated books (Image: Saint John Book Buggy Facebook)
Each week, the buggy will go to playgrounds to drop off books, with Letkeman adding she also has plans to do pop-up events.
“Books can take you anywhere, they can take you on a magical journey, they can give you so much knowledge and just transport you to different places in the world,” she said. “Literacy is just so important because our world is so literacy-based right now, even digital literacy is something that we really need to promote with our kids.”
The buggy’s official launch is June 18 at 10am at Rainbow Park. Future park visits will include Rockwood Park and the Kennebecasis Valley Ultimate Dreamland Playground.
If people are interested in donating books to The Book Buggy, they can contact Letkeman on the buggy’s Facebook page.
