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Isabel Meadowcroft

We are delighted to announce our volunteer of the month for March 2023: Isabel Meadowcroft! Here’s a message from her:

“I fondly remember my favourite children’s books – mostly because my dad was an energetic reader who delighted in animating them and because of the enduring lessons I learned from these stories. As a child I learned to read later than my peers, but I believe it was this early connection to literacy that meant I picked it up quickly once I had help, becoming an avid reader. I now take pride in supporting minibiblioPLUS’ mission to develop early literacy skills through instilling in children a lifelong love of reading and learning. I enjoy using puppets, props, and imagination-based games to actively engage the children with the content of the book. I’m delighted when, after story-time, the children initiate play based on the characters and themes from the books. Now, without prompting, the four-year-olds make predictions about what might happen in the story and ask questions about the material during the read-aloud! Most of all, I love it when the children rush to the bookshelves after story-time to pick out their favourite books to read individually. Through volunteering with minibiblioPLUS I’ve witnessed how reading stories aloud to children encourages their problem-solving and creative skills as well as their empathy.”

Anna Savulescu

We are delighted to announce our volunteer of the month for February 2023: Anna Savulescu! Here’s a message from her:

“Following the suggestions of my brother, who is also a volunteer with minibiblioPLUS, I joined this team, as a Video storyteller, four months ago. Even if I was somewhat reluctant at the beginning, for fear of disappointing young listeners who might browse my videos, it took only three videos to gradually acquire self-confidence and find the satisfaction of feeling useful while creating, animating and having fun. I feel even more valued knowing that the diversity of themes covered in my readings makes it possible to reach children with different curiosities and preferences. Triggering smiles and arousing the interest of toddlers in reading, brings me a lot of pleasure. Thanks to my contribution, I hope that I succeeded in helping minibiblioPLUS to carry out its activities of awareness and early literacy and that more and more children will take their first steps in reading.”

Bee Bergeron

We are delighted to announce our volunteer of the month for January 2023: Beatrice Bergeron!

Here’s a message from her:

“As a child, my mother read me a story every bedtime until I learned how to read. She told me it was my favorite part of the day, in part because she framed it as a treat. I am convinced this made me a voracious reader, who sometimes had to be told off to stop reading when going down the stairs. I am grateful my mother made this effort for me. Especially since someone told her I might never learn how to read when I was 4. Only because I am autistic (which has nothing to do with being able to read, but maybe has a little to do with why I organize my library by color).

I decided to volunteer for minibiblioPLUS to pay forward what my mother gave me. I am also very happy I was assigned to a school for autistic children.

After reading Neil Gaiman’s article (Why our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming) where he discusses the benefits of reading and being read to, it really cemented my desire to volunteer at minibiblioPLUS.”