Marta Alvarez never intended to stay at the Maple Ridge Community Library for more than a year. She was supposed to be filling in temporarily—just a part-time circulation clerk scanning books and helping kids find graphic novels. But one year became two, and two slid into fifteen. Now she was fifty-six, still shelving returns with the same steady rhythm she used to rock her babies to sleep decades ago. Every weekday at 3:10 p.m., the library doors swung open and the after-school crowd poured in.

I was truly honoured to open the library at Birchen Coppice Primary School today. This community has faced some challenging times, and it’s thanks to an extraordinary team of wonderful people that the school can now offer its incredible children the opportunity to nurture a lifelong love of reading, and endless possibility. I believe every child is magical — and they all deserve to feel that magic within themselves. When we follow our own truth, we each have the power to change the world and spr