Preparations underway for first Read Across Wood Buffalo Day on Sept. 25

By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(ANNews) – For the past six months, preparations have been underway for the inaugural Read Across Wood Buffalo Day on Sept. 25, which aims to promote literacy, especially among youth and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The annual community literacy initiative was conceived by Fort McMurray-based writer Juleus Ghunta, who previously recounted his journey from illiteracy to literacy advocate to this newspaper.

In 2025, Ghunta served as regional Writers’ Guild of Alberta writer-in-residence for Fort McMurray. At the end of each residency, the writers are tasked with organizing an event to promote local literacy, which Ghunta used as an opportunity to begin the process of raising awareness for Read Across Wood Buffalo Day by hosting a launch in March. 

“Read Across Wood Buffalo Day will not be a singular event or a couple of events that will take place, let’s say at the library, and that’s it,” Ghunta emphasized in an interview. 

“We hope that as many people as possible, particularly schools across Wood Buffalo, will create their own Read Across Wood Buffalo Day event to celebrate the day.” 

The library will have “pop-up storytime events for anyone who wants to drop in and participate” throughout the day, which will kick off there with an official proclamation from Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Coun. Mike Allen at 10:30 a.m.

Ghunta has brought along local Indigenous musician, poet and literacy advocate Shaylean Gladu to serve as the event’s community ambassador.

Gladu, who is a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, told Alberta Native News that she and Ghunta know each other through Fort McMurray’s tight-knit literary scene. 

“We started connecting through our work because both of our work has focused specifically on complex childhood trauma and expressing our culture and in what we do,” she explained.

Gladu said her primary role is to “engage the community” to spread awareness and encourage participation in Read Across Wood Buffalo Day. 

“One of the largest parts is going to be getting kids excited about reading, or anyone that can find some sort of comfort in reading,” she said, adding that this is especially valuable for people who are struggling. 

This year’s theme for the event is “Many stories, shared humanity.” 

Ghunta said he chose this theme in response to current events, in which many “marginalized voices are being shut out” of important conversations. 

“We wanted to bring attention to the incredible and important humanizing force that is storytelling, providing opportunities, avenues and spaces for people whose stories are generally not told on certain platforms to have opportunities for their stories to be told,” he explained.

Ghunta wanted to emphasize the “importance of sitting with each other, understanding that there are differences, but then also stressing and paying attention to the fundamental needs that we have as human beings to be seen, to be treated with respect, to be treated with dignity, to have an opportunity to fulfill our potential.”

Gladu added that a “big part of what it means to be a writer is to serve humanity, word by word.” 

“It takes a great amount of strength to believe in yourself and be able to feel confident enough to create something in the written format,” she said. 

“Writers serve humanity in that way, because we’re all working hard to connect with each other, to share our story and be a part of something bigger.”