Write to Read BC

Tag: communities

  • Profile: Bob Blacker

    Bob Blacker helped drive the success of Write to Read BC, and is now a co-lead with Dr Shirley-Pat Gale. Blacker is also a retired inspector of New Westminster Police and a longtime Rotary Club volunteer.

    Blacker first joined a Rotary Club in 1996. He has since served as Club President and, in 2008-2009, as district governor for Rotary District 5040. This district consists of 54 Rotary Clubs across BC.

    In 1998, Blacker became an Honorary Aide de Camp to Steven Point, then lieutenant-governor of BC. In 2007, Point and Blacker started working together to get books into isolated Indigenous communities across BC. This led to the Write to Read BC project.

    Photo of Bob Blacker.
    Bob Blacker is the recipient of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee medals, and a vice-regal commendation for his work with Government House (BC) and First Nation communities.

    In 2012, Blacker was left to carry on as the project leader when Point returned to the Bench as a Provincial Court Judge, having completed his term as lieutenant governor of BC. Both men had high hopes for the project, but never dreamed that Write to Read BC would be as successful as it is today.

  • Profile: Shirley-Pat Gale

    Dr Shirley-Pat Gale is a passionate literacy advocate and is co-lead of Write to Read BC with with Bob Blacker.

    Driven by an insatiable curiosity and a passion for changing the world around her, Gale is committed to social-action literacy initiatives and community-development innovation in isolated BC communities, both indigenous and non-indigenous.

    Photo of Shirley-Pat Gale.
    She’s so energetic that Steven Point, the 28th lieutenant-governor of BC, dubbed Gale “the original Champion spark plug.”

    Gale has built strong and meaningful relationships with each Indigenous community or Nation that she has had the privilege and honour of working with across the Pacific Northwest, as well as with non-Indigenous organizations, communities, and governments.

    Gale has an interdisciplinary and multicultural education, with a doctorate in Canadian studies, a master in education in leadership, and a bachelor of arts in history and classical languages and literature. She’s taught in China and Japan, and taught a pre-trades program focused on trades and literacy for Indigenous learners in Canada. Currently, Gale is a comprehensive community-planning mentor working with Indigenous communities and is the sole proprietor of her own consulting company.