Bee-ing the Change: How OKARTA Supports Project Literacy

What’s the benefit of giving back to your community? The Bee Keepers of Okanagan Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (OKARTA) can spell it out for you.

Bev Mallett, an active OKARTA member, was first to introduce her fellow retirees to the Project Literacy Central Okanagan Society. In 2006, after moving to Kelowna for retirement, Bev attended a volunteer fair seeking ways to stay involved in the community. With a background teaching English and in counselling, Bev was immediately drawn to Project Literacy and its mission.

Founded in 1986, the Project Literacy Central Okanagan Society provides literacy support for learners of all ages and backgrounds: children, adults, seniors, refugees, and immigrant families. Since the non-profit society began, they have helped thousands of people in the Central Okanagan improve their quality of life through one-on-one tutoring services. From English and math, to digital tutoring and financial literacy, there is support for learners of all ages.

“I’ve met people from all around the world, so you become very aware of what they are facing in other countries,” says Bev of the English as a second language (ESL) learners she has tutored. “You see how proud they are to start a life in Canada.”

Entirely funded by grants, fundraisers, and donations, Project Literacy’s tutoring sessions are led by volunteers and offered free of charge. This ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn necessary life skills, no matter their backgrounds or financial situations. For the past five years, Project Literacy has created quite the buzz in the Okanagan with their biggest fundraiser: an adult spelling bee.

Each May, local businesses and groups in Kelowna and surrounding areas team up to participate in Project Literacy’s Adult Team Spelling Bee Fundraiser. Funds are raised at this event through every team’s entry fee of a thousand dollars; last year, a grand total of fourteen teams competed for the Spelling Bee Trophy.

Since OKARTA has been a longtime supporter of Project Literacy, the society’s executive director, Paul Zuurbier, approached Bev to see if the branch would be interested in getting involved. That’s how OKARTA’s spelling team, The Bee Keepers, came to bee.

The OKARTA branch tends to stand out in the crowd at the fundraiser each year, proudly dressed in black and yellow, sometimes with stripes and smiling bee hats on their heads. Like the pollinators they are emulating, OKARTA is happy to work together to support the cause; no one understands the importance of literacy better than a group of retired educators.

Different from most spelling bees, the Project Literacy fundraiser has teams work together to determine the correct spelling of a word in just sixty seconds, with a designated team captain who has the final say. “It’s a really great team-building experience,” says Bev. “We get loud!” Their enthusiasm even earned the branch a Spirit Award at the fundraiser last year.

“It’s an amazing cause and organization,” Bev says. “OKARTA is proud to support Project Literacy; it's also thanks to the grants we receive from ARTA that we get to participate in the fundraiser.”

If you want to create a buzz around literacy in your own community, you can learn more about Project Literacy at projectliteracy.ca.

Brooke MacCallum
Communications Coordinator, ARTA