Read about it! Newsletter No. 53 June 2011 BRINGING BOOKS AND CHILDREN TOGETHER SINCE 1995 ISSN 1177-0562 ANZ and EFTPOS get behind Wellington schools ANZ Business Bank and EFTPOS brought together clients from around Wellington to compete in their charity golf day at Miramar Golf Course on Air Chathams, Bluebelle Café Island Bay, April 7. Brenden Stuart, Burger Fuel Courtenay Place, In the face of some spirited Wellington winds Café Villa, Crombie Lockwood, Football NZ, teams competed for a range of prizes – G T Tory, Gillies and Mark Realty Ltd, Gola including the chance to win a Volkswagen Golf Gates Ltd, Great Expectations Caterers, for a hole in one! Harvey, Norman Tory Street, Indeserve, Island Bay Butcher, James Cook Joinery, Duffy was on hand to hit the ceremonial Kilbirnie Sports, Liquor King, Magma Artwork, opening tee shot and kept busy behind the MasterCard, Maude & Miller, Miramar Golf BBQ making sure that hot food was available Club, Mishmosh, National Bank Sponsorship for competitors. Also present were stars from Team, Parade Café, Quinovic Kent Terrace, the Hurricanes and Pulse who encouraged Rugby NZ, Sektor, Snapper, Srixon, Steinlager, bidders at the auction. Subway, Featherston Street, The Dominion While no one was fortunate enough to take home the car, many Clinic, The Home Loan Shop, The Oaks Satay of the participants took home auction items which were kindly Noodle House, The Pulse, TME Electrical, donated by a wide cross section of local and national businesses. Tommy’s Real Estate, Twins Digital Printing, At the conclusion of the post-round auction Fred Ohlsson, ANZ’s Village Beads Petone, Wellington Phoenix, Managing Director of Business Banking, presented Linda Vagana Whittakers and Duffy with a cheque for $17,000 which will go towards sponsoring Miramar South School, Ngati Toa School, St Anne’s School and St Bernadette’s School. A huge thank you goes out to all the participants and to those who donated (and purchased!) auction items. Paper Plus gets behind Christchurch schools In the second two weeks of Term Two which the company and its customers donated Paper Plus Group distributed almost to the Red Cross at a special assembly at 36,000 books collected as part of Spreydon School. their book drive for the children of The books were distributed at all 34 Duffy Christchurch. schools in Christchurch. Logistics firm and The books, both new and used, were donated long-time Duffy Books in Homes sponsor at Paper Plus and Take Note stores nationwide Mainfreight ensured that the thousands of in response to the February earthquake. This books got to their destinations in Christchurch. was in addition to the an amazing $150,156 Role Models such as Dallas and Julie Seymour, Linda Vagana and the teams from What Now! and The Erin Simpson Show visited the schools Also in attendance at the assemblies were representatives from the eight Christchurch Paper Plus stores. They helped present books collected from Paper Plus and Take Note stores throughout New Zealand. Paper Plus Group CEO, Rob Smith, was impressed with the support shown by communities around the country. “After the earthquake we put our heads together to see how Paper Plus and Take Note could help out and we are delighted at the response to our book drive. Our customers around New Zealand have really pulled together to get the kids of Christchurch something of real value” June 2011 he said. Linda Vagana was thrilled with the support from the Paper Plus Group, “Our efforts to promote family literacy have really been hampered in Christchurch. We’re delighted that the Paper it! about Plus Group and their customers have chosen to support our children and their families with such an amazing donation,’ she said. Read The printing of this newsletter is kindly sponsored by Soar Printing The paper is kindly supplied by Message from Alan Greetings, everyone. Alan Duff reporting in from my May schools visits which I thought you might be interested in hearing about. Firstly, good to report that our Duffy schools remain strongly passionate about the programme. And, sad as it was to see the earthquake damage at some of our Christchurch schools, the kids were upbeat and getting on with it. It was neat to hear their tales of reacting as they had been taught to do when the quake struck. “We went into turtle positions!” “It was scary but cool too.” “The ground was rolling up and down!” as the quake happened when the children were out on the playground, luckily. Yet when I started handing out books you would not have thought they’d gone through such a frightening experience. Kids excitedly started reading their books and not caring what Duffy had to say! Goes to show, eh, the power of books! One of the many joys of being involved with Duffy Books is my visits to the Family Corner schools; I can tell you, I never get tired of doing it. Tired at the end of the day, sure, but I feel uplifted, indeed privileged, to be able to experience the children in their unpredictable moments, take their questions, see the expressions. Some ask incredibly intelligent questions. And you should try aren & P ts... holding the attention of 20 or 30 five and six year olds. It is hard, I tell you. ids K Talk to your One little boy piped up and said, “My Mum reads to me. But Dad school about the reads better.” When I asked him why, he said, “Because he gives me Kids at Home programme a ice-block.”!! Of course a lot of kids don’t have a Dad, as you single Get Mums will well know. Yes, it is a modern fact of life but still, kids miss your the presence of a dad. I see it in kids who start talking about their absent father and then they clam up. I do understand. The Duffy Team understands. It’s why we’ve stayed around for over 15 years. People are hurting. Mums, grandmothers, the kids. freebirthday So why am I bringing this sort of stuff up? I guess as a way of saying that I personally understand the home situations. It’s why any kid who comes book up to give Duffy a cuddle I give a big cuddle back. It’s why we send Role for preschool Models, so the children can have someone to look up to and aspire to be brothers and sisters like. It’s why I wrote the Maori Heroes book. Because our kids need people – heroes – to look up to. At the start of the Maori Heroes book I spoke of the heroic single Mums. www.booksinhomes.org.nz The heroic kids who never give up and so eventually achieve something. [email protected] Freephone 0800 383 392 It is the reason we have Role Model visits, of anyone from an All Black to a television star to a local person known to everyone in her or his community. They are someone to look up to. Hi parents! Now, we can’t fix all the pain and hurt we see. We can only do our little bit. During the course of this year you’ll start to see Just be assured that when all else fails the children can take refuge in a this poster around your school about the Kids at book, they can find sanctuary, comfort. At the same time their imagination Home programme. This lets your primary school June 2011 develops, so does their intelligence, their word power. With these tools aged children give a book to their at-home we give them better hope for the future. Which is why we’ll be around in younger brothers and sisters on their birthday – another 15 years making sure our Duffy kids get books and all the other all for free! parts of our programme. Thanks for listening. If you want to make sure your children take about it! about advantage of this programme just ask about it Arohanui at your school. Read Read Alan Duff The most famous Kiwi song you’ve never heard In August 1999 at Stebbings Recording Studio singers recorded a song for children in schools involved in a young literacy charity. Written by Jan Hellriegel and Toi Iti, with music by Jan Hellriegel and Dave Dobbyn, ‘Read About It – The Duffy Song’ was conceived as an inspirational song for children to sing when they received free books at special school assemblies. On April 11 2011, Rikki Morris and Jackie Clarke visited Neil Finn’s Roundhead “Knowing that “The Duffy Song” has been Studios to record a fresh version of a song enjoyed by so many is a highlight of my which doesn’t get radio time or feature career and something that I am very proud on lists of the country’s greatest singles. of,” says Jan Hellriegel. However, it is now sung by 100,000 children in hundreds of schools around New Zealand The song is about to go global. Duffy Books every year. in Homes now reaches schools in the USA and Australia and versions substituting Despite its widespread appeal in schools, ‘Redwood’ and ‘Gum Tree’ for ‘Totara’ join most people have never heard the lyrics ‘Tall Family Corner the Kiwi version as downloads on iTunes as a Totara, Duffy kids will read around the from today. Not only that, multi-talented hip- world.’ But mention that line to a child in any hop artist Anonymouz has remixed the song one of 541 Duffy schools nationwide and to create hip hop and reggae versions. they’ll be able to sing the song from start to Photo: Adrian Malloch finish.