Literacy Council offers a few thrills and spills Saturday

Amit Maharajh from Trinidad tests out skating for the first time during the 7th Annual Family Literacy Skate Saturday.

There were a few thrills and spills Saturday afternoon the community enjoyed some ice time during the Seventh Annual Family Literacy Skate at the Sam Jacks Complex thanks to the North Bay Literacy Council and their partners CUPE Local 122, Northern Honda and Hands the Family Network.

“This is our seventh Family Literacy Skate and what we want to do is promote literacy for families,” explains Jane Jackson , Literacy Council Executive Co-ordinator.

“So we want parents to understand how important it is to read and write and talk to the children, and so what's more northern Ontario than bringing families out to skate so that's why we are doing the skating.”

Jackson says people understand the importance of literacy when it comes to their personal survival but in the end without literacy in the home a family can face huge barriers.

“It gives them some together time. It also helps the children value literacy because if you grow up in a family that doesn't value literacy or they don't have reading materials in their house then the children don't value literacy and they don't see the importance of reading.”

“Reading is just not reading in a book … reading is reading a bank machine, reading a computer screen, playing games and all of that stuff, so if you don't know how to do that then you are not able to join in with what your family does or what the community does, so it's a very important skill to have.”