At its heart, Yarns in Barns is designed to inspire a love of reading in the Wairarapa community. Why? Because studies show that reading for pleasure holds huge benefits – from improved literacy to a flourishing imagination and creativity, empathy and understanding to mental well-being and enjoyment of life. Reading brings so many people, so much joy.
While we are never too old to pick up a book, starting young can instil the habit and enrich lives for many years. From this belief, the Inspire a Child to Read Initiative was born to inspire more tamariki to pick up reading for fun.
2022 Inspire a Child to Read programme
The ‘Inspire a Child to Read’ initiative was introduced at Yarns in Barns 2022 with the generous support of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust. Their vision for education and improving literacy in our region is to be congratulated.
We held afterschool events with authors Donovan Bixley (Flying Furballs), Fifi Colston (Masher) and Jason Gunn (Jason Mason) at the Masterton Library and distributed free 600 books to children in Year 5 and 6 in the Masterton region.
2024 Inspire a Child to Read programme
In 2024 the initiative was expanded to include the authors visiting schools on top of the public afterschool event at Masterton Library, to which all schools were invited.
Funding from Masterton Trust Lands Trust allowed us to bring the hugely popular author, James Russell to Masterton. James has published two junior fiction series perfect for the target age group of Years 5 and 6: Dragon Defenders and Children of the Rush.
James travelled to Solway Primary and Lakeview School and enthralled the kids with his stories. We were then able to give all the children a copy of the book, then and there. We were delighted to welcome Monique Kloeg for the occasion at Solway School.
We would also like to thank Eastern and Central Community Trust, who supported us in bringing author and comedian, Sam Smith to Masterton for school visits and the event at the Masterton Library, and financing the distribution of free books to the children at Douglas Park School. Sam was a huge hit with the kids, talking to them about how fun reading and telling stories is. He also spoke to them about living with MS, which the children really responded to.
Seeing the joy on children’s faces as they were introduced to the world of books was one of the most rewarding aspects of the festival.
Both Masterton Trust Lands Trust and Eastern and Central Community Trust share a commitment to ensuring all children get equal opportunities to experience the magic of reading.
Their support has helped spread the joy of literature and opened doors to new adventures through the written word.
Ngā mihi nui.