The orange T-shirts and newspapers by donation are the same, but there are a few changes in store for Wednesday’s Raise-A-Reader Day.
About 150 volunteers will still be out and about in the community, starting at 7 a.m.
Rick Major, director of reader sales and services for The Daily News, said they will be at every McDonald's restaurant offering special-edition Daily News newspapers.
“The majority of our money is made hawking newspapers,” he said of the annual fundraiser, now in its fourth year.
Volunteers will also be at various high-traffic locations, including the YM/YWCA downtown, the corner of Columbia Street and Third Avenue, Highland Drive in Valleyview, Chapters Books and Thompson Rivers University.
But a few new shifts have been added, including a 5 a.m. visit to Kamloops Airport to corner business people taking a morning flight and an afternoon blitz of city malls and shopping centres from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to catch the lunch crowd, said Major.
In the past, volunteers have been out strictly from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Last year’s Raise-A-Reader Day raised $62,000. Major said the goal is to top that.
And the effort is off to a good start. A corporate spelling bee raised $8,000 in May and a Loonies for Literacy program with local businesses brought in $2,000.
“We encouraged them to give a loonie or two for each employee,” he said, adding more businesses are expected to donate. “We contacted people and asked if they would give.”
All funds raised go toward the Kamloops Early Language and Literacy Initiative and Literacy in Kamloops.
“We’re quite happy to be included with Raise-A-Reader. It’s a perfect fit for The Daily News,” said Major.
