This past January marked the 10^th year of Honda Canada’s founding sponsorship of Family Literacy Day (FLD), the annual celebration of reading together as a family, with ABC CANADA.

As more and more businesses partner with community organizations and social initiatives, the corporate social responsibility trend becomes the norm. Honda Canada has been involved with several corporate responsibility initiatives even before the term was coined, partnering with ABC CANADA in 1999 for the first Family Literacy Day.

“It has been a pleasure for Honda to work with ABC CANADA,” says Rina Khosla, Supervisor of Corporate Affairs at Honda Canada. “They are a group of passionate individuals who really understand the challenges of communicating the impact of low literacy to Canadians. While they are grateful to all their sponsors, we are very fortunate to work with such talented and able partners.”

ABC CANADA and Honda’s partnership has succeeded in creating thousands of FLD events across the country, which promote literacy activities to Canadian families.

“When ABC CANADA approached Honda with the concept of increasing literacy in Canada by celebrating it as a family, we were delighted. Not only is education one of Honda’s philanthropic pillars, but literacy touches every Canadian,” states Khosla. “Who would have thought that a few hundred celebrations 10 years ago would grow into thousands of celebrations across the country throughout the week of FLD?”

This year’s Family Literacy Day, which takes place annually on January 27, was a great success. A recent survey of participants revealed that at least 27 Honda dealers and more than 275,200 Canadians officially participated in FLD events in 2008.

Honda Canada continues to work hard with ABC CANADA to inform Canadians of the importance of literacy and reading as a family.