Who says an old idea cannot live again and that children, despite the most adverse situations will read if they can? I am sure that Joan Oleck will not mind my passing on this message from the British Columbia School Librarians to the Blue Stockings. For me this is inspiration and for those who write children’s stories hope for the future. Fran

Plane Drops 7,000 Books for Canada’s Indigenous Kids

Joan Oleck — School Library Journal, 3/5/2007

Most kids head to the library or bookstore when they need a book, but the aboriginal Cree children in Canada’s Far North can boast about a more adventurous experience. They received 7,000 novels and picture books after a military plane dropped them on to the frozen ice of a river emptying into Hudson Bay.

The February 26 drop was designated for K–10 students of the aboriginal reserve called Fort Severn First Nation. The tribe, like all of Ontario’s 26 northern first nations, suffers from geographical isolation, poverty, low literacy, and, until recently, a near-total lack of books in its school libraries. In all, two air drops delivered 900,000 new and gently used books for children in the subarctic native communities, which are unreachable by land during the winter.

The project is the brainchild of Ontario Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman, who is a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation. When Bartleman started the drive for the first nation school libraries in 2004, he collected 1.2 million books.

Bartleman’s chief-of-staff, Nanda Casucci-Byrne, says the thrill of watching the first drop outweighed the minus-10-degree temperatures and biting wind she had to brave. “It was a very large plane, the largest the community had ever seen,” she says. “It circled the community three times, and on the third time, on this predesignated spot on this frozen lake, you saw this large door at the back of the plane open. Then parachutes started to open. It was like gifts from the heavens.”

Once the massive crates hit the ice, nearly everyone in the community of 250 people hopped on their Skidoos and dogsleds and raced to reach the containers. Bartleman helped nearly 50 children tear open boxes and choose books. Some of the kids even plopped down on the snow and began to read, says Casucci-Byrne.

“When we put out this appeal, we thought, ‘If we get 150,000 books, it’ll be tremendous,’” she says. “Nine hundred thousand books later, and seeing this airplane coming to the most northerly, remote area of Ontario, and seeing these books fall from the sky… it was a beautiful picture.”