What is Roanoke Valley Reads?
Roanoke Valley Reads (RVR) is an annual community-wide reading experience in which people across the Valley read a chosen book then come together to discuss it and attend activities related to themes in the book. RVR is organized and implemented entirely by volunteers. It seeks to:
- encourage people to make reading a part of their daily lives
- foster a sense of community by bringing together people of different ages, races, religions and socio-economic levels
- promote tolerance and understanding of differing points of view
- emphasize the importance of literacy
History of Our Community-Wide Read
Big Read Roanoke Valley
Idea
- July 2009--Friends of the Roanoke County Public Library decides to sponsor a community-wide read. Two Board members are coordinators.
Organization
- Friends partners with the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read in Virginia.
Big Read Roanoke Valley is born.
- A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines is the book for 2010.
- Big Read activities take place throughout March, 2010.
Outstanding Arts Education Program - Roanoke Valley Reads
Winner of the 2012 Perry F. Kendig Award for Outstanding Arts Education Program, given by The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.
"The idea is that the city that opens the same book closes it in greater harmony."
~Mary McGrory,
"The Washington Post"
