The impacts of the 2010 BC Summer Games are far reaching, as residents know.

There will be the experiences and special memories for the athletes and coaches as well as the volunteers and spectators.

There will be the legacy of improved local facilities, many of which received facelifts to accommodate the province's best athletes.

And there will be a spotlight on sports, with all its benefits of learning about fair play, goal setting, physical fitness, and more.

But people may not realize that the Games will also improve literacy. Langley Literacy Now, the regional literacy initiative has teamed up with the Fraser Valley Regional Library to create a bookmark that was handed out to all public school students and is available at libraries.

The colourful bookmarks are more than just a way to keep from losing one's place in a book.

They include the list of Games sports and are meant to encourage people of all ages to read about sports and sports-related topics.

"When the Olympics came along and we saw how interested people were in sports... we wanted to do it for the Games," explained Hattie Hogeterp, the Langley Literacy Now outreach coordinator.

The local libraries have created a vast list of sports materials (books, magazines, DVDs, and more), ranging from biographies and coaching tips to children's stories and sports fiction.

There are books on bocce, baseball, cycling, equestrian sports, kayaking, swimming, Special Olympics, sailing, rugby, wrestling, soccer, and softball, to name but a few.

Hogeterp said that far from being antithical to each other, reading and sports are allies.

"Literacy is a part of everything we do, including sports," she said.

People can learn about sports they already participate in, to improve their game, read up on new activities they might want to try, or get inspired by the biography of an athlete or coach.

"Reading about something they're really interested in can get them started [in a sport]," she said.

And sports helps upstairs. Kids who get exercise during the school day do better academically.