The Calgary Transit and Calgary Public Library collaborated with a few local celebrities yesterday at Olympic Plaza C-Train station to “catch and reward” Calgarians who were reading on the C-Train.
“People were really quite delighted with it,” said Ron Collins, Calgary Transit communications co-ordinator.
“It was a good way for us to get people excited about literacy.”
The street reading teams included Calgary Public Library and Calgary Transit staff, as well as municipal officials, Transit Teddy, Henry Burris of the Calgary Stampeders and Ralph the Dog.
Prizes included scarves, Calgary Public Library bookmarks and Transit Teddy buttons.
The initiative is part of a month-long Calgary Public Library promotion to get people excited about reading. Calgarians can enter at local branches to win “snuggle up and read,” prize packages, or online to win an iPod touch.
“This was good for us because we carry so many people on our system,” said Collins.
“We had a lot of smiling faces on the Calgary Transit. You got a nice scarf with the Calgary Transit logo and Calgary Public Library logo on it just for enjoying a good book … something a lot of people do on the train anyway.”
