Visit to Mitchells Plain Primary School No. 1... 31 October 2013

On Thursday 31 October 2013, READ to RISE went to Mitchells Plain Primary School No. 1 in Westridge to distribute over 300 copies of OAKY AND THE SUN to the Grade 2 and 3 learners.

Our wonderful volunteer readers did a great job.

The readers included (left to right): Mike Kendrick, Kevin Wildschut, Junita Williams, Nicholas Williams, Mark Christian, Celeste Christian, Aaron Tejada and Roscoe Williams.

This visit was extra special because our Chairman, Athol Williams, had attended this primary school, as well as Nicholas, Roscoe, Junita and Aaron.

 

 

The children got so excited when they recognized me at the back of the book listed as the illustrator. During the break time, I even had a whole group of girl learners run up to me and hug me - so rewarding :) Only wish that Athol was there in person, the children would have been over the moon to see the author too!

Meet Volunteer Reader... Anel Olsson

Anel is a mother of two gorgeous toddlers, originally from Jo'burg and lives in Somerset West with her partner and best friend Alber. Anel studied Drama in London and plans on studying Linguistics. She loves holistic living and art.

Some feedback from Anel about her experience:

"It's so wonderful and inspiring to know that people doing good are alive and well. I got involved with the Read to Rise initiative via Social Media. When Taryn and Athol Williams called out for volunteers to read at Meadowridge Primary I jumped at the opportunity. "

"Not native to the Cape I panicked all the way there that I would get lost and also that I would be hijacked by gangsters who would kill me. Well let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. Friendly strangers helped me to find the school when I took a turn too soon and the kids from Meadowridge were enthusiastic, bright, well-behaved and adorable! I got warm greetings, hugs and smiles! It was evident that the kids loved 'Oaky and the Sun.' They participated excitedly in the reading and Q & A. "

"Hats off also to the teachers at Meadowridge who teach about 40 kids per class. I highly recommend volunteering to spread the love of reading. Literacy will empower our people tremendously. Join Read to Rise!"

Visit to Harvester Primary School Grade 2's... 30 October 2013

The READ to RISE team - Taryn, Aaron and Roscoe - visited the four Grade 2 classes at Harvester Primary School in Westridge, Mitchells Plain on Wednesday 30 October 2013.

 

Visit to Meadowridge Primary School.... 30 October 2013

The READ to RISE team visited Meadowridge Primary School in Lentegeur on Wednesday 30 October 2013.

Our two teams of readers for the day included Mike and Anel as well as Kevin and Aaron.

Over 400 copies of OAKY AND THE SUN were distributed to Grade 2 and 3 learners at Meadowridge Primary School. There are five Grade 2 classes and five Grade 3 classes.

Mike, Anel, Kevin and Aaron did a fantastic job reading with the learners and discussing the book. They taught the children the different parts of a tree and showed how an acorn grows from an acorn to become a big oak tree.

Here is Aaron, Kevin and Roscoe (READ to READ Programme Manager) in action:

 

 

 

 

Here is Mike and Anel reading to the children:

 

Photo: M. Kendrick

 Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

 

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

Photo: M. Kendrick

 

The children's eyes lit up when they received their very own OAKY AND THE SUN to take home. What an amazing day! Thank you to our volunteer readers for inspiring these children to read and rise.

The children were very excited to see that the illustrator of the book, Taryn Lock, was there too. Hopefully, it inspired some learners to become an illustrator one day :)

Disappointed by our printers, Creda Communications, on our launch day

On Tuesday 29 October 2013, we had planned to visit three Primary Schools in Mitchells Plain (Mandalay Primary, Harvester Primary and Beacon View Primary) and distribute over 900 copies of OAKY AND THE SUN.

Unfortunately, our printers Creda Communications let us down.

We had many issues trying to print the books which delayed the whole project by 2 weeks. The books were supposed to arrive on Monday 28 October, but at 4pm I was notified that they was some problems with the trimming of the covers so had to be reprinted but they promised that the books would be delivered 7am the next morning - in time for our 9am session at Mandalay Primary.

On Tuesday 29 October 2013, I arrived at my brother-in-law's house at 7:30am and was horrified to discover that the books hadn't been delivered!!

I called Creda several times, the woman that I was dealing with was in a meeting, so I told the receptionist that I urgently needed to speak to her and that our books hadn't arrived. I even contacted the other salesman in JHB to try get hold of her. At 8am, we hadn't heard anything from Creda so we had no choice but to cancel the day's events...

We had to phone the Principals to tell them that we would not be coming. I also had to quickly call the volunteer readers to tell them that we had to postpone the day's events. Sadly, we had to disappoint 3 schools, 10 volunteer readers, journalists, donors and almost 900 children :(

I went into Creda's office, they apologized but the damage was done.

We took 400 of the books that were ready, they said that the rest of the books would delivered by 1pm.

At 1pm there was still no books. I called at 14h30 to find out where our books were, the lady said that she would call me back. She called back later saying they were still finishing up the books. She called back at 16h10 to say that the books are being dispatched so we should get them shortly. We waited, the books finally arrived at 6pm!

The customer service from Creda has really been terrible! They let us (and everyone involved) down.

We sadly will have to consider other printers going forward.