1000 Books for 1000 Kids
Collect a thousand children's books for refugee and newcomer kids in Calgary, and get every one of them, through our partner CIWA, into the hands of a child who keeps it.
Our first delivery
Four boxes of sorted children's books go to CIWA, who pass them on to the refugee and newcomer families they work with.
- 1,240 books
- 4 boxes
- to CIWA
The book count updates itself: every book is scanned in by ISBN when it's sorted, so the number above is pulled straight from our database.
Why a thousand?
Because it is big enough that people notice, and small enough that one student with a family car can finish it.
A thousand books is roughly forty banker's boxes. Through CIWA, that is a first bookshelf in hundreds of homes of families who have just arrived in Calgary - in English, in the languages children already speak, and in both at once.
We passed the thousand-book mark in the first month. The goal stays where it is: the number that matters now is how many of those books are in a child's hands, not in our boxes.
And why "1000 kids"? Because books are the means, not the goal. We count a kid the first time they take home a book that is genuinely theirs. Some get one, some get five. If we hit a thousand books and only reach two hundred kids, we've stocked shelves, not built home libraries.
How we get there between now and June
The year has a rhythm, and this campaign is built around it.
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August 2026
Get the drive off the ground
Website up, the book scanner built, and the first donations arranged with Calgary families.
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September 2026 - now
Partner with CIWA, and the first delivery
Partnership confirmed with the Canadian Immigrant Women's Association, and the first four boxes delivered on 18 September.
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October – December 2026
The fall push
Pickups after school and sorting most weekends, with a push in December when people clear shelves anyway. Priority: books in families' first languages.
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January – March 2027
Winter reading bundles
Long, cold months indoors are when a family's first bookshelf gets the most use. Halfway checkpoint: 500 books delivered, not just collected.
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April – May 2027
The spring stretch
Spring cleaning and daycare and library cleanouts bring in the most books of the year. Extra push to find books in other languages.
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June 2027
1,000 books, 1,000 kids
Summer bundles go out before school ends - the stretch when newcomer kids have the least access to English books.
Four things that each get more books to families
Estimates based on what comparable book drives report - we'll replace them with our own averages once we have a few months of data.