What an amazing day! All our energy was focused on supporting children who should be able to answer this one simple question…. ‘Who read to you today?’.
We are empowering children to take the initiative and by putting the onus of responsibility in the hands of the child for a moment, ensuring the conversation regarding ‘who read to you?’ is a valid one, means the children have also made a contribution to this discussion.
International Read to Me! Day, March 19th, every year. We remind ourselves of how important it is to read to our children every day and to give children a megaphone so they demand to be read to regularly.
We have to extend our eternal gratitude to Sam Seccombe, film maker and his incredible team for their amazing video which set the tone for the day. To the indefatigable Jill Boggiss who set us up with an amazing press release and gathered up passionate literacy advocates in Bahrain (Thank you too Lisa Rial!) proving to be the most active country outside of Australia, closely followed by South Africa (Thank you Neo Thulo!)
Our thanks also to media support from The Gulf Weekly in Bahrain and Australian Regional Media; and radio stations ABC Southern Queensland, 3MDR and Curtin Radio.
To the glorious businesses who helped us promote the day; Stuck On You, Ceres Global and Shelley Craft through the Kelloggs / Smith Family book appeal. Can’t do a thing without you Child Mags – thank you Natalie Ritchie! My Little Story Corner and ABC Jenny – what can we say! As passionate literacy advocates, you certainly are amazing. Thank you.
To the schools who actively engaged in the event and pioneered activities perfectly suited to the day – Toowoomba Anglican College and Preparatory School, Geelong Grammar School and St Saviour’s Primary School and St Maria Goretti. We look forward to this list particularly growing in the years to come!
And the number crunching… Boogie Books offered its support in the form of paid advertising on facebook. For $859.43, the pages reached 258, 932 and it was checked out by 169,927 people from all around the world. The most popular was one particular post of Sam’s promo video (an invitation to JK Rowlings to be patron!) and it was watched by over 23,000!
What now: if you are interested in championing the day or being involved as an event organizer, a passionate volunteer reader, or advocate in your school or workplace, please PLEASE get in touch em@boogiebooks.com.au
