From the Branches
Doreen Pawlowski | President, SWARTA
2019 SWARTA Volunteer Award
Recipient, Michelle Dimnik
At SWARTA’s 2019 Christmas Party, President
Doreen Pawlowski presented the ARTA Volunteer
Award to Michelle Dimnik, Lethbridge, for her
volunteer work with ‘One District One Book,’ which
she had organized for all the elementary schools
in Lethbridge.
During her thirty-three-year teaching career with
Lethbridge School District #51, Michelle Dimnik
served as a teacher-librarian (elementary and junior
high), resource room/learning support (elementary),
and classroom teacher (grades 1, 3, 4, and 5). While
her accomplishments as an exemplary
teacher have made a signifi cant
contribution to the community,
her love of reading and her
introduction of the One School
One Book program has had an
even more lasting eff ect.
Michelle’s leadership and
enthusiasm for the One School
One Book program has kept
the program going continuously
for the last eleven years and has
led to larger projects such as Three
Schools One Book. Further, Michelle’s
ultimate vision of the One District One Book
program drew to a successful completion on May 1,
2019, and saw thirteen thousand books distributed
to and read by about forty thousand students
and their families, school staff , and community
members, all at the same time.
The One School One Book program involves
raising funds from the community to purchase
chapter books for all the students in a particular
school and then distributing the books free to
students to be read aloud at school and at home
with the students’ families. The results of the
program include enhancing the love of reading for
students, having parents act as reading role models,
bringing families together in a shared reading
experience, and bringing the school community
together as it engages in a common activity.
While projects such as One School One Book and
One District One Book are not brought to fruition
by just one person, Michelle provided the vision,
leadership, enthusiasm, and commitment necessary
to make such programs successful. Michelle has
been recognized internationally for her work,
speaking at international literacy conferences
on the success of the programs and
putting the City of Lethbridge on
the map as a community-minded
literacy innovator.
After Michelle retired in June
2018, she unselfi shly spent
hundreds more volunteer hours
working on the One District One
Book project until its successful
conclusion. Her contribution
to reading and literacy in the
community will continue well into
the future with her involvement in
other literacy programs, such as the Rocky
Mountain Book Award. This award is a children’s
choice book award where children from grades four
to seven from across the province are encouraged
to read a selection of books authored or illustrated
by Canadian writers and vote for their favourite
book. Michelle has been a co-chair of the program’s
voluntary board, an active member for twenty years,
and intends to continue with the program well into
her retirement.
Thank you, Michelle, for being an exemplary
volunteer! ●
news&views SPRING 2020 | 17