Rachel Reid is helping to save libraries in Canada.
The author of the popular Game Changers books series (also known as the Heated Rivalry series) donated $300,000 to Annapolis Valley Regional Libraries (AVRL) in Nova Scotia after she heard five of its branches were set to permanently close next month.
“I just really believe that libraries are so important, especially to small communities,” Reid told Global News. “They’re an essential service and I don’t think closing a library branch is a small change to a community, I think it is actually catastrophic. So if there was a way I could stop it from happening, I wanted to do it.”
AVRL announced June 1 that it would be closing four branches due to a lack of sustainable funding. The branches were set to close July 20 but days before that date, the AVRL board approved using half of its remaining reserve funds to extend the service of those locations until September 30. Reid’s donation will extend the branches’ lives until at least the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
Reid said she reached out to AVRL to find out how much money the branches would need to stay open until at least the end of the year. Once she found out how much was needed, she donated the amount to keep them open.
The donation came at just the right time, said Julia Merritt, CEO of AVRL. Merritt told Global News that Reid’s donation will allow AVRL to keep open all 11 of its branches until about March 2027.
“We’re profoundly grateful to Rachel for her belief in and commitment to libraries and to helping us in this vulnerable time,” Merritt said.
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Photo: Caleb Latreille, courtesy of Harper Collins.
