Canadian adult learners receive $10 million, net, through PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy – Founded by Peter Gzowski

TORONTO, ON – Today, a milestone for the literacy movement in Canada will be reached. The PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy – Founded by Peter Gzowski will turn the corner on seeing $10 million raised, net, in its 21-year history. All of these funds have gone directly to literacy organizations, thereby allowing the opportunity for Canadians across the country to improve their literacy skills.

Championed by the late Canadian broadcaster and journalist Peter Gzowski, the tournaments – affectionately known as the “PGIs” (“Peter Gzowski Invitationals”) – have played in every province and territory in Canada, delivering needed resources to the thousands upon thousands of adult learners who struggle with the challenge of low literacy. (Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development state that nine million adult Canadians struggle with low literacy.)

The $10-million mark “is a tribute to the man who gave his name and so much of his time to the cause of literacy,” says Peter Mansbridge, Anchor of CBC-TV’s The National and National Spokesperson for the tournament. “For Peter, this was all about providing the means to help change lives for the better. It has, it is – and it will.” Founder Gzowski once dreamed that the tournament he championed might one day raise one million dollars – today’s accomplishment beats that ten-fold.

Colleen Wall: one of this country’s grateful learners

While the milestone will be officially recognized at the PGI Golf Tournament at Willow Park Golf & Country Club in Calgary – the last PGI tournament in the 2006 season – literacy organizations in every province and territory are celebrating this achievement. The learners who have benefited from the PGIs are legion.

One such learner is Colleen Wall. Colleen struggled in high school in Newfoundland – reading at about a grade-3 level, she recalls – and shortly after graduating in 1992 she moved to Calgary where she enrolled at Mount Royal College. She experienced failing grades at Mount Royal and one of her professors suggested that she might have “a learning problem” – a notion reinforced by some other people’s comments. Colleen sought some counsel which led her to the Calgary Learning Centre and its Partners for Learning program.

“I have thought many times what the Partners for Learning program did for me,” she says. “I can honestly say that my life changed from the time I had my first visit to the Centre.” Beyond the challenge she had reading and comprehending, she says that throughout her life “what was even harder was trying not to buy into all the people – teachers and peers alike – calling me stupid.” The Calgary Learning Centre gave her not only the opportunity to learn at her own pace but also to meet others with similar needs and to feel encouraged and strengthened by her accomplishments.

“I am grateful for all the people I met through the program, but the thing I am grateful for most is the start of the new self image that I began to develop, that helped me to keep going – straight through to university.” Colleen attended Saint Francis Xavier University from 2001 to 2005 and graduated with first-class honours with a degree in Sociology.

Her story, in one fashion or another, is played out in literacy organizations across the country – thanks in no small way to the PGIs.

The PGI Golf Tournaments for Literacy – Founded by Peter Gzowski is a division of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation. It is made possible due to the generosity of volunteers and corporate supporters across the country. National Sponsors: Canada Post Corporation; CBC Radio-Canada; The Co-operators; and Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life; National Contributors: Explorer Headgear Inc.; The Globe and Mail; HarperCollinsCanada; Hudson’s Bay Company; and McClelland & Stewart Inc.; Northern Contributors: EKATI Diamond Mine; First Air; National Spokesperson: Peter Mansbridge.