Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2009 (5000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — IT’S time for the readers of Winnipeg to unite.

This morning volunteers are out on city streets trading special-edition copies of the Free Press for donations to the Canwest Raise-a-Reader program.

Watch for the people wearing bright orange T-shirts on your way to work and have your change ready to support a worthy cause — literacy programs in Manitoba.

"I think literacy is something we’ve started to take for granted in Canada," said Free Press editor Margo Goodhand, who is hawking newspapers and raise cash for the cause today.

"Yet, when you see the latest statistics — that about half of all Canadian adults only have a level 2 reading level — it makes you realize just how vital this issue still is," Goodhand said.

"A level 2 reading level is the ability to handle only simple tasks in writing. That’s clearly not acceptable in today’s information age."

Low literacy levels are linked to low employment levels and high crime rates, according to the International Adult Literacy Survey

Goodhand is joined by Free Press publisher Bob Cox, writers Doug Speirs, Morley Walker, Miss Lonelyhearts’ Maureen Scurfield and other Winnipeg personalities, including Canwest’s Leonard Asper, Global TV anchor Peter Chura, Buzz and Boomer and more than 200 volunteers.

All of the money collected stays in our community, helping to fund local family literacy programs, including Adult Education Centres, CNIB, the International Centre and Literacy Partners of Manitoba.

— Staff