Our Community

From lending a few hours of packing books to helping us run festivals in the Caribbean to corporate support, our volunteers are making a meaningful contribution. Maybe that includes you!

Every day Canadians contribute both their money and time to improve the well-being of their communities. The benefits of volunteering and giving may be even broader for society. [Volunteerism] contributes to ​‘social cohesion’ – by increasing social trust, reciprocity and sense of belonging.

StatsCan 2015 General Social Survey: Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada

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July 2014, authors and illustrators and families combined efforts to prepare shipments for the Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia. image
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July 2016, Lana Button author of
June 2015, volunteers at our Bolton warehouse prepare 14 skids of books–about 20,000 gently-used books for school libraries in St. Lucia. image
March 2016. 31 green shirts equal 31 volunteers from Canada and St. Lucia at the Rainforest of Reading wrap-up. image
March 2016, Richard Ponsonby gives the thumbs up for St. John's-Kilmarnock School volunteers in St. Lucia. image
March 2014, over 20 volunteers came from Canada to the Rainforest of Reading in Grenada and St. Lucia. image
November 2015, in Montserrat Zelma Tuitt-White (Left) manages the Rainforest of Reading. Governor Elizabeth Carriere (Right) shared her love of reading with all primary students. image
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Students from an independent school in Waterloo Region and supervising teacher, Carey Gallagher, volunteered their help at Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia and Grenada. image

We depend on volunteers.

A casual conversation with Staples employee Scott Bruyea was the catalyst for his family to get involved. Scott and wife Karen stacked and labelled over 19,000 lbs of books for St. Lucia.

Joan Richardson and her husband Merv exemplify the power of giving back. For three years, they’ve reserved books from Friends of the Guelph Library annual sale for our ever-growing inventory of gently used books.

Tom Best and First Book Canada generously make hundreds of new books available to us at no cost which we send to school libraries in the Caribbean.

The business of giving back.

Since the start, Kim Nelson and Royal Containers provide our custom-labelled boxes free of charge. Cavalier Logistics discount their rates so we’re able to drop off box supplies to schools and pick-up all our donated books. Without the generosity of Ken Chitolie at KLC Shipping and Jake Amso at Freight Partners International our shipments by truck, boat and air would not be affordable.

In Their Own Words

The Rainforest of Reading Festival is an innovative project. Sonya and Richard are committed to building our biggest and most important resource, our children, by providing for them what so many of us take for granted in North America; the opportunity to read.

Lori Sherritt-Fleming
Co-author: Hungry for Math

"Every aspect of modern life is governed our ability to read. From road signs to labels, to newspapers, to books—our ability to read is invoked and used daily, and our success in doing so will determine how far we go in life."

Hon. Dame Cécile La Grenade
Governor General of Grenada Rainforest of Reading address November 2014

The availability of books widens the horizon, and gives license to young people to pursue their dreams. Learning opens up the world. I commend One World Schoolhouse Foundation for its commitment to expanding the minds of youth.

Hon. David Onley, O.Ont.
28th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario

Courageous, committed, courteous, caring, calm. I am happy I know you and your family. You [are] on a mission to change the world with words. It's my pleasure to help you to do it.

CYNTHIA GRENYION
Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Nevis

I am 11 years old. My favourite book is "Hungry for Math". Thank-you for the Rainforest of Reading activity.

Jelani, student in Mabouya Valley, St. Lucia

VOLUNTEER IN CANADA OR THE CARIBBEAN

Packing books or volunteering at Rainforest of Reading festivals in the Eastern Caribbean is an ongoing task – made lighter with the participation of students and adults. If you’re available to spend a few hours at our office in Guelph or in the warehouse in Bolton – or if you’d like to come to St. Lucia, send us an e-mail and we’ll put you on our newsletter distribution list.

July 2016, Lana Button author of
July 2016, Lana Button author of "Willow Finds a Way" (BACK ROW) and her volunteers stacked over 10,000 lbs. of books for Vieux Fort schools.
June 2015, volunteers at our Bolton warehouse prepare 14 skids of books–about 20,000 gently-used books for school libraries in St. Lucia. image
June 2015, volunteers at our Bolton warehouse prepare 14 skids of books–about 20,000 gently-used books for school libraries in St. Lucia.
March 2014, over 20 volunteers came from Canada to the Rainforest of Reading in Grenada and St. Lucia. image
March 2014, over 20 volunteers came from Canada to the Rainforest of Reading in Grenada and St. Lucia.
November 2015, in Montserrat Zelma Tuitt-White (Left) manages the Rainforest of Reading. Governor Elizabeth Carriere (Right) shared her love of reading with all primary students. image
November 2015, in Montserrat Zelma Tuitt-White (Left) manages the Rainforest of Reading. Governor Elizabeth Carriere (Right) shared her love of reading with all primary students.
March 2016. 31 green shirts equal 31 volunteers from Canada and St. Lucia at the Rainforest of Reading wrap-up. image
March 2016. 31 green shirts equal 31 volunteers from Canada and St. Lucia at the Rainforest of Reading wrap‑up.
March 2016, Richard Ponsonby gives the thumbs up for St. John's-Kilmarnock School volunteers in St. Lucia. image
March 2016, Richard Ponsonby gives the thumbs up for St. John's-Kilmarnock School volunteers in St. Lucia.
Students from an independent school in Waterloo Region and supervising teacher, Carey Gallagher, volunteered their help at Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia and Grenada. image
Students from an independent school in Waterloo Region and supervising teacher, Carey Gallagher, volunteered their help at Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia and Grenada.
July 2014, authors and illustrators and families combined efforts to prepare shipments for the Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia. image
July 2014, authors and illustrators and families combined efforts to prepare shipments for the Rainforest of Reading festivals in St. Lucia.
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A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

MARTIN TUPPER
Author (1810-1889)
And the Winner in Montserrat is....
Marlaina White (Left) announces the Second Annual Rainforest of Reading Award to Illustrator Jan Dolby (Middle) and Author Joyce Grant for "Gabby."

At the moment that we persuade a child, any child to cross...that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever.

BARACK OBAMA

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

WILLIAM JAMES
Philosopher, Psychologist (1842-1910)

Reading brings us unknown friends.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Novelist (1799-1850)
Find 52: The Road to Reading in Grenada
In February 2015, Richard ran right around Grenada, a distance of 52 miles. 52 "Mile Captains" raised $40,000.

If we want to make this world a better place, then we have to become better ourselves. There is no easy route.

DALAI LAMA

Life is too deep for words so don't try to describe it, just live it.

C. S. Lewis
Author, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The future is always beginning now. Each moment is a place you've never been.

MARK STRAND
Poet (1934-2014)

It is by acts and not ideals that people live.

ANATOLE FRANCE
Author (1844-1924)

Start some kind words on its travels. There is no telling where the good it may do will stop.

Sir Wilfred Grenfell
Humanitarian, Medical Missionary (1865-1940)

If you get the right [words] in the right order, you might nudge the world a little.

Sir Tom Stoppard
Playwright
Challenging literacy development
Although English is the official language of St. Lucia, Krewyol is spoken as much or more outside the classroom.

I read. I travel. I become.

DEREK WALCOTT
St. Lucian author & 1992 Nobel Laureate
It's a long story
Books packed by kids in Ontario for their peers in the Caribbean travel 1,800 kilometres by road then another 5,275 kilometres by container ship.

Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.

KOFI ANNAN
Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006)
Out of this world
After reading "Postcards from Outer Space' a student in Montserrat is inspired to be the next Chris Hadfield.

Too many people grow up. That's the trouble with the world.

WALT DISNEY
(1901-1966)

If you believe what you read...you can, quite literally, believe anything.

NORTHROP FRYE
Professor, Philosopher (1912-1991)

All I know is what I have words for.

Ludwig Wittgenstein