Chard Freemasons Fund “Bookfest”
Holyrood Academy in Chard has set up a “Community Hub” where representatives from local schools, the police, councillors, local employers, the youth service, meet up at the school on a monthly basis to try to pool resources and expertise to aid the children of Chard. Happily, Chard Freemasons from the Lodge of Prudence and Industry were invited to be part of this very worthy project. Our representative is Mike Froom.
One of the main themes is to promote literacy by encouraging reading. It seems that not enough children have developed the much -hoped -for fascination with getting lost in a good book! The school and the “Hub” members decided to set up a “Bookfest.” We were invited to an event where primary school children and even pre-school children, some with parents, came to the school where students read to them and took them through the joy of reading. They filled the school sports hall with chairs, bean bags etc and in this casual manner the enthusiasm was infectious and the looks on the faces were heart -warming. It should be said that even the Holyrood students were juniors. They did a fantastic job and seemed to gain as much in the delivery as did the recipients.
The overall aim of the project is for every child born in Chard to get a book to take home. The main focus for the day was a book called “The Colour Monster Goes to School” by Alex Llenas for the youngest children and it went down very well.

In order to facilitate this, the school needed to buy the necessary books. A spectrum of age ranges and styles was needed. The original discussions obviously raised the problem of funding. How was the money going to be raised? Prudence and Industry could not let the project be delayed, or perhaps even fail, so we promptly donated the £750 needed.
Accompanying Mike were myself (to take photos) and Clive Sanders, a nationally and internationally well- regarded poet, who gives workshops to children in this country and in Chard’s twin town of Helmstedt in Germany where the children are keen to write poetry in English, so Clive has a natural interest in promoting literacy. Clive and I have been invited to accompany Mike to the next “Hub” meeting in September.

by Alan Gitsham LCO Prudence and Industry