The Eckille Municipal Library competed in the province wide Challenge #ReadFor15 on January 27, which encouraged everyone to read anything for a total of 15 minutes and then report it back to the library.
The winner of the competion is the community with the highest percentage of their population reporting back to their library. Despite a strong showing, Eckville was bested by the community of Donalda which won the competition with 62 percent of their population reporting in.
Colleen Ebden, Eckville Councillor and member of the Eckille Library Board believes its important for people of all ages to discover a love of reading.
“Reading is so important for everyone of all ages,” she said. “From when you are you reading to your children at bed time until whenever. It helps your imagination and it helps with learning. I think it makes better people.”
Ebden said she reads anything she can get her hands on.
“I read everything I can get my hands on,” she echoed. “It brings joy and it gets your mind going. You can picture things you can read.”
Ebden encouraged everyone in Eckville to set aside time to read and also time to support their local library.
“Everybody should read for 15 minutes a day because it can make you feel good,” she said. “It gets people involved with the library. The library does so many things. It can get people into the library of all ages. It gets people to start reading.”
Starting reading, even for older generations, can be a difficult task but a worthwhile one according to Ebden.
“Maybe even people forgot,” she said. “They used to read when the were young and then life happened and now it’s time to get back to it.”
If you would like more information about the Eckville Municipal Library you can visit www.eckvillelibrary.prl.ab.ca.
reporter@eckvilleecho.com