The Shoe Project by Author Katherine Govier

I wanted to work with immigrant women who had the potential to lead, honing their writing skills in English. Elizabeth Semmelhack, Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, wanted to create a small exhibition featuring ‘the shoes that brought me to Canada’. We met at a dinner party. Our two ideas came together with a private sponsor and The Shoe Project was born.

Every Thursday last fall I met with twelve women from 18 to 60 who have come to Toronto from the Ukraine, Columbia, and many places in between. Elizabeth opened the rich storage vaults of the Bata and spoke of the cultural significance of shoes. I brought tea, and various members brought cookies. We talked about writing and we talked about immigration. We laughed over expressions using shoes that are common in many languages: ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ was one that puzzled almost everyone. ‘Filling someone’s shoes’ and ‘walking a mile in his shoes’ seem universal. Shoes are really quite profound: intensely personal, they speak of geography, weather, work, religion, and gender. Actually, there is very little that shoes DON”T speak about.

The women all found that they had a shoe-inspired tale. Writing their stories in 800 words was one thing. Providing a 100 word caption for an item on display in a showcase was even harder. One woman’s story is about being smuggled across the border from Eritrea in a pair of Nikes. Another wrote about her terror donning ski boots to take the ultimate test, sliding down on sticks down a hill in the Canadian Rockies. Another brought the tiny Gerber baby shoes her daughter wore when they first touched down in Canada from Pakistan.

By the end of eight weeks each member had written a personal essay and provided the footwear to match. The ‘snapshot’ exhibition where you can see their writing and their shoes opens Feb 9th. The Shoe Project continues this winter, with its members reaching out to help more women in their shoes.

KATHERINE GOVIER’S LATEST NOVEL IS THE GHOST BRUSH (HarperCollins.ca)


www.govier.com
www.theprintmakersdaughter.com

Why is Family Literacy so important?

On January 27th, we celebrate Family Literacy Day in Canada. It's a national awareness day initiated by ABC LifeLiteracy Canada , to bring light to the importance of family literacy.

Today, I think we focus a lot on our children's literacy more than our own (as parents), and yet it's something that we should continue throughout of life. On the STELLAA website, we list 10 Ways to Celebrate Family Literacy Day, but you can definitely continue to do these daily. Literacy is not only about reading and writing. It's about growing your ability to learn, and we learn everyday. In everything we do, there is an aspect of learning. And thus, the importance of literacy.

It's never too late to start a new activity to build your literacy skills as a family. I have small children and so our literacy focused activities include visiting the library on a weekly basis (even on a busy day, I can't really avoid it as it's on my way to my son's school and I don't remember a day when he didn't ask to go to the library!) bedtime stories, read-a-longs at the library, and author events like the Children's Story Jam by Small Print Toronto. We've also started to play board games and do family puzzles. Some well-known board games that help children develop their literacy skills (while you refresh yours) include

• Monopoly Jr.--helps with development of social skills, colour recognition, reasoning, reading and math skills
• Scrabble Jr.--develops literacy and language skills
• Boogle Jr.--helps with letter recognition, words, spelling, printing, and matching skills
• Zingo--fosters matching and reading skills, quick thinking
• Junior Labyrinth--helps with the development of spacial relations

It's a great way to spend an afternoon with the family...not to mention quite nice on the wallet! Other than the above mentioned learning opportunities, board games help your child calm their erratic energy into a more mature and sociably accept personality.

This Family Literacy Day, do something as a family to encourage and foster literacy and continued learning. We'd love to hear what you've done! Please comment below with any additional ideas!

By Joanna Ferensowicz, President, STELLAA