Saint John Free Public Library Supports Storytent

The Saint John Free Public Library is continuing to partner with Quality Learning New Brunswick and local community groups to offer Summer Reading Club to children who attend the Storytent.

Quality Storytents is a community literacy program that takes place rain or shine. The Summer Reading Club is a province wide public library program that encourages reading by allowing children to set a reading goal for the summer, track their progress with logbooks and stickers and celebrate their accomplishments.

This summer, with the support of the Library and other partners, the Storytent will be expanding beyond Crescent Valley into the Old North End at the corner of Albert and Metcalf Streets, Anglin Drive.

Pictured above is Cheryl Brown, co-creator of the Storytent and Suzanne Ball, Chair of the Saint John Free Public Library Board of Commissioners. The cheque presentation took place at the June meeting of the Library Board.

Additional funding for books came from the Patrick Mooney Bequest. Below are a few of the wonderful books purchased for the program with these funds.

Rogers Supports Storytent

Rogers Cable Communications Inc donated an outdoor tent to the Quality Storytents Program. Rogers also presented the QLNB program books and a cheque for $3,000, as well as lending organizing support to this year's launch.

“Rogers is pleased to support the Storytents Program and its efforts to help children to learn how to read”, said Ken Marshall, Regional President of Rogers Cable Communications Inc. “More importantly though, we hope the kids will develop a love of reading that will continue long after they leave the program”.

“We are so pleased that Rogers is supporting the Storytent this year. We are always in need of tents, books and funds to keep the program working – especially this year as we have located ourselves in four priority neighbourhoods. I can’t wait to try out the Rogers tent!” Says Cheryl Brown, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator.






The Quality Storytents program started seven years ago in the Crescent Valley neighbourhood in Saint John. This year it expanded to three additional neighbourhoods in the Saint John area: The Old North End, Anglin Drive and Crown Street. With informational and moral support, five other groups are running Storytent programs elsewhere in New Brunswick, including Moncton, Campbellton, the St. Stephen area and Edmunston.

City Supports Storytents

"It was just the right thing to do," said Councilman Peter McGuire in a newspaper interview (seen here attending the 2009 Storytent launch). "It is fairly rare that cities invest in social infrastructure."

Rare, indeed! But this year the City of Saint John has invested $131,000 in neighbourhood Development Stimulation Grants. QLNB recieved $8000 of this from the City at a City Hall presentation.


We had proposed to offer storytents in three Crescent Valley locations, as well as the Old North End (in partnership with The ONE Change), and on Anglin Drive (in partnership with the Anglin Drive Tenants' Association).

Peter McGuire has long been a fan of Storytents and Bookwagon, but this is the first year we have received direct financial support from the city. We're pleased to welcome them aboard on what will be a wonderful summer of learning for us.

Storytent 2009 Launch

Rogers Cable Communications Inc worked with us to organize our Summer 2009 Quality Storytents launch. Rogers also donated an outdoor tent which was unveiled at the July 6th event.

The Honourable Herménégilde Chiasson, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick and Honorary Patron of “Born to read – Le Goût de Lire” participated in the morning’s presentation. He is pictured above, receiving a gift of local pottery from CVCTA President Janet McLaughlin, the CVCTA

He was joined by two young participants, Delaney Savoie and Shanice Bourke-Doucette, who spoke about their storytent experiences. Mom and long-time storytent supporter Susan Lewis also shared some of the differences the program has made for her family.

Major funding for the 2009 storytent project comes from the City of Saint John, and the Saint John Free Public Library. This year we have received corporate sponsorship through Canaport LNG and Rogers Cable. Other supporters include the Crescent Valley Community Tenant’s Association, and various private doners.

The Quality Storytents program started seven years ago in the Crescent Valley neighbourhood in Saint John. This year it expanded to three additional neighbourhoods in the Saint John area: The Old North End, Anglin Drive and Crown Street.

With informational and moral support, five other groups are running Storytent programs elsewhere in New Brunswick. Tents will be offered in the greater Moncton area, Campbellton, the St. Stephen area and Edmunston. Combined with Saint John, this means storytents will be offered in 16 New Brunswick locations.

Since 2003, QLNB has facilitated a partnership in Crescent Valley (NB’s largest public housing neighbourhood) between the Crescent Valley Community Tenant’s Association (CVCTA) and the Saint John Free Public Library to improve the community's access to literacy and library services.

We provide an outdoor summer reading program for children that gives children and families access to books and reading support. We have evaluated this program on three occasions. The research results of this project were very positive:

• increase in reading frequency
• all children assessed maintained or showed a gain in reading level
• children’s perceptions of themselves as readers improved
• relationship strengthened between this community and the library
• more children from this community participated in Summer Reading Club
• parent reports of improved relationships between children
• increase in adult participation in borrowing
• parent reports of increased reading to their children at home.

CVCTA Supports Quality Storytents

The Crescent Valley Community Tenants Association (CVCTA) presented four $200.00 cheques to community partners at the CVCTA meeting of March 24th; including one cheque for the Quality Storytents program.

Left to right in the photo above are Jennifer Carhart, Principal Hazen White St. Francis School (Friendship T-Shirts Project); Cheryl Brown (Storytent); Janet McLaughlin President CVCTA; Nancy Savoie (Flemming Court Project); Juanita Black, (Around The Block Newspaper).

The Crescent Valley Community Tenant's Association is a voluntary association of community residents and interested friends. The CVCTA has been a longtime supporter of the Storytent program and other QLNB work in the neighbourhood, and we consider them a major partner.

First Bookwagon of 2009

The first bookwagon of 2009. Yay!

Our work in the community has been shifting as the community itself has been undergoing changes. Last fall, besides the usual technical troubles...



... we lost about half our numbers when a large portion of the public housing community was torn down. Families relocated elsewhere throughout the city, and we stopped crossing Somerset Street.



You can see that the new route (in red) is significantly shorter.

As well, last fall, we reduced our runs to every other Saturday. We wanted to give time to building a community-run static library. As it turned out, weekend library use hasn't been extensive in the short-term, and our reduced wagon schedule appears to have cost us some users.


We've decided to go back to doing bookwagon every weekend. We are also making the library as user-friendly and self-sustaining as possible. It is still a project QLNB believes in, but we need to dedicate more hours to keeping and rebuilding our wagon clientèle.

Build on success. Find what works. Do more of it.

That's the only way community literacy work can succeed.

Saying 'Thank You'

“45000 Good Reads” was the theme of a thank you event that recognized the major funders of the Quality Storytents program in Crescent Valley in September.

Thank you plaques were presented on International Literacy Day, to funders who have donated more than $10,000 in the six years since the program began.

In the photo, L-R, are Sarah Mudge, Greater Saint John Community Foundation Board Member; Amber Robertson, Provincial Raise a Reader Representative; Blair MacDonald, New Brunswick Children’s Foundation Chair; Suzanne Ball, Saint John Free Public Library Chair; Trevor Holder, MLA Saint John Portland & Storytert participants Theresa Lunn, and her two children (in front, L-R), Dawn and Jared. The celebration took place at the Crescent Valley Community Tenant’s Association on MacLaren Blvd.

Here's a special shout-out to MLA Holder for MCing the event.