Decoda Literacy Solutions, BC’s provincial literacy organization, raised more than $35,000 during its annual September is Literacy Month province-wide awareness and fundraising campaign.

This year’s theme, “Literacy: The Ripple Effect”, highlighted how literacy skills enhance our quality of life at home, in the workplace and within the community, creating a ripple effect that benefits everyone.

“Our 2025 Literacy Month campaign was a big success, thanks to our generous sponsors, partners and donors,” said Sandra Lee, Decoda’s Executive Director. “The annual Team Trivia Challenge was a highlight, and we introduced a new province-wide campaign called “Give a Book. Give Literacy.” to help literacy-related organizations collect books for their programs.”

Net proceeds will directly support Fostering Literacy in 23 communities across the province. These programs provide one-on-one tutoring for school-aged children, particularly those in government care, who struggle with reading.  

Decoda Team Trivia Challenge

More than 100 trivia participants from 12 corporate and community teams competed in Decoda Literacy’s signature fundraising event on September 24 at Donnellan’s Irish Pub in Vancouver. Together, they raised over $16,000 for literacy programs.

Congratulations to team “Defending Champions,” winners of the 2025 Decoda Literacy Team Trivia Challenge Cup for a second year in a row! The team raised $3,050 for literacy.

Thank you and congratulations to team “The Quizzbians,” this year’s top fundraising team, whose $4,000 total was matched with an additional $2,000 from Literacy Champion Award sponsor, Megan Sutherland of BMO Nesbitt Burns.

This year marks a major milestone for Blue Sky Clothing’s Socks for Literacy! campaign: more than 100,000 pairs of socks sold over 10 years and $107,677 raised for literacy in BC. To celebrate, the Blue Sky team presented a cheque for $17,305 from this year’s sales.

A big thanks to Dan Burritt, host of CBC Vancouver News at 11 p.m., who co-hosted the Team Trivia Challenge and to Decoda Board Chair Nathan Hume, our emcee for the evening.

Thank you to Nice Guys Trivia for a fun-filled evening and to Donnellan’s Irish Pub for their wonderful hospitality.

Give a Book campaign and contest

Across the province, organizations participated in Decoda’s new “Give a Book. Give Literacy.” campaign to collect books for their programs and events.

Decoda held a province-wide contest asking people to Give a Book to a local organization.

The winners of the draw for a $50 Indigo gift certificate were:

• Sandra Herd
• Johane Meehan
• Sandra MacFarlane
• Mahnaz Salahi

Literacy Supporters, Sponsors and Donors

Decoda is grateful to all our supporters who contribute to September is Literacy Month.

Corporate Sponsors

• Blue Sky Clothing
• FortisBC

Corporate Donor

• Happier IT

Literacy Champion Award Sponsor

• Megan Sutherland, BMO Nesbitt Burns

Community Sponsors

• Vancouver Local 15 CUPE
• Rotary Club of Vancouver BC

Exclusive Broadcast Media Partner

• CBC Vancouver

A special thanks goes out to CBC, our exclusive broadcast media sponsor, whose support of our campaign generated over 1.5 million impressions and amplified our message across the province.

Trivia Host

• Nice Guys Trivia

Gift-in-kind Donors

BC Landmarks light up in purple for literacy on September 8, International Literacy Day

• BC Place
• City of Vancouver – Local Government and Burrard Street Bridge
• Douglas College
• Fort St. John Centennial Park Band Shell
• Parliament Buildings
• Port of Vancouver
• Science World
• Telus
• Vancouver Convention Centre
• Government of BC

Government support for literacy

Decoda is grateful to the Government of British Columbia for supporting literacy:

• The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs provides $2.185 million in annual grants to Decoda Literacy Solutions to support the co-ordination of community literacy throughout British Columbia.
• The Province contributes $500,000 annually to the Postmedia Raise-a-Reader campaign and $65,000 for the BC Summer Reading Club.
• The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills invests $3.4 million annually to support community adult literacy programs throughout British Columbia.

BC communities give to celebrate literacy

Learn about three BC organizations that found creative ways to support literacy by collecting books for children, refurbishing computers for learners and receiving surprise cheques to fund local programs in Books, Bytes and Big Hearts: BC Celebrates Literacy.

Working together for literacy

Decoda supports literacy practitioners and organizations working in over 400 BC communities. Results reported in the 2024-25 program year show:

• 19,703 adults engaged in improving their reading, writing, technology and financial skills
• 33,891 adults engaged in their children’s learning
• 41,554 children engaged in early literacy learning
• 26,791 school-aged children and youth engaged in improving their reading, writing and financial skills
• 8,531 seniors engaged in improving their reading, writing, technology and financial skills
• 90,231 people participated in literacy related workshops, seminars and events