Read-a-thon raises money and awareness

Primary School children have been busy reading away, at break time, lunch time, in class and at home ... raising money for ARC. This week they met the charity's inspirational founder Miss Yoshimi.

Children throughout Primary School, from Nursery to Y6, have joined in with the sponsored read-a-thon over the last 2 weeks. They have been busy reading away, at break time, lunch time, in class and at home. Every time they read a book they coloured a heart in order to collect sponsor money for their efforts. The more hearts they coloured the more money they received. Looking at the sponsor forms, I know that children asked their family at home, their friends and neighbours and even family overseas such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.

The money is going towards a charity called ARC - the always reading caravan. Miss Yoshimi is the founder of the charity which provides books and builds libraries for poor communities around Thailand. Miss Yoshimi is herself blind and came to visit the children to explain how she can read through the use of touch and braille. She also taught the children how she writes using a stylus.

We are very proud of our community’s generousity as we have raised 62,714 Baht for this very worthy cause. So a massive thank you goes to the families in St Andrews - you are amazing. We also need to say a big thank you to Miss Kiyomi who did so much to organize this event.

If you have still to collect your sponsor money, please don’t worry, bring it into school and we will make sure we add it to the total.