Vodafone Warriors Hit The Library To Show Kids Reading Is Cool

Ahead of their home-ground match against the Titans next weekend (Sunday 9 August), the Vodafone Warriors are abandoning Mount Smart Stadium in favour of Pakuranga Library, with the goal of showing the lucky kids in two Auckland classrooms just how cool reading can be.

More than 500 Auckland students in years four and five entered the Rugby League Reads (RLR) programme, run in partnership with the Vodafone Warriors and Konica Minolta. Eight lucky schools have won the chance to read with their rugby league heroes at four Auckland libraries in August.

The first library visit will take place at Pakuranga Library at 1.30pm on Tuesday 4 August, with children from the winning year-four classrooms at St Thomas’s School in Kohimarama and Kohia Terrace School in Mt Eden.

The Vodafone Warriors will take time out of their training schedule to work with the children to complete four literary activities, two of them centered on New Zealand books: Papa’s Donuts by Kate Moetaua, and Henry and the Flea by Brian Faulkner, a story about a young boy who dreams of one day playing for the Vodafone Warriors.

The RLR programme aims to show kids that ‘reading is cool’ and improve the literacy levels of seven- to nine-year-olds, encouraging them to learn the valuable life skills of reading and writing at an age when reading can become difficult.

In entering the competition, the children submitted short stories and poems about their favourite players, including everything from colourful tales of meeting and training with them to creative descriptions of their performances on the field. One West Auckland classroom took the opportunity to pay tribute to the late Vodafone Warriors star Sonny Fai through their stories.

“It’s really important to learn to read and write well as you will need it for any job you have whether you become a lawyer, doctor or even a league player,” said Vodafone Warriors One Community Ambassador and NRL star Manu Vatuvei. “Every day we have to read our training schedules and I have to write performance reports on how my game is going – reading and writing are really important aspects of how I perform on the field.”

The top school prize went to room 11 at St Thomas’s School in Kohimarama for their colourful and descriptive stories. Devout Vodafone Warriors fan Zac Chan’s story won him the top story prize. In his story, entitled ‘Warriors: Kevin Locke’, the Warriors star teaches Zac and his brother the art of grubbers and cross kicks at Mount Smart in a special practice session.

“We were really overwhelmed with the passionate entries from young Vodafone Warriors fans around Auckland,” said competition judge and Konica Minolta national marketing manager Josh Byers. “It was an incredibly hard competition to judge, because all the entries were of a really high standard. They showed the creative writing and the enthusiasm for the game that we were hoping to draw out.”

The eight winning schools are Kohia Terrace School, Mt Eden; St Thomas School, Kohimarama; Mangatangi School, Pokeno; Pukekohe East School, Pukekohe; Ranui School, Ranui; West Harbour School, West Harbour; Whangaparaoa School; and Browns Bay School on the North Shore.

The other winning schools will meet their heroes at the three following library visits, which will take place at Manurewa Library on Tuesday 4 August, and Waitakere and Glenfield Libraries on Tuesday 18 August.

Konica Minolta plans to publish the collection of over 500 short stories and poems about the Vodafone Warriors after the competition, to present to the schools involved.

ENDS