Soroptimists give free books to children at festival
Members of St Austell and District Soroptimists supported the first Festival of Children’s Literature held in St Austell by running a free book give away on Saturday 4th June. The visiting children and parents were delighted to find such a large collection of children’s books covering all ages from babies to teens. With additional free gifts from St Austell Library, the children were certainly very happy as they left the Market House. Book donations to the club were generous, as usual and we would like to thank everyone who donated or collected books for this event.
Local schools were involved in literacy activities ahead of the festival and there were a range of competitions with prizes given on the day. Local authors gave talks and readings at various venues across the town including in the cinema and in the library. Children could have their books signed by the authors. So many amazing authors!
Balloons and banners surrounded the Soroptimist’s book stall and from opening at 10.30 a.m. until closing at 12.30 a.m. the stall drew a big crowd. Our youngest visitor took a copy of Peek-a-boo and our oldest was very happy to find a copy of Tom Gates’ latest book.
We were especially honoured to be visited by Soroptimist Counsellor Crystal Pearce, who is the new St. Austell Mayor. She was very complimentary about our stall and reminded us how important it is to engender a love of reading in our local children.
We loved looking through the books and remembering our own favourites or those of our children and grandchildren. We certainly had a great deal of fun!
Our thanks to our volunteers who spent the morning at the Market House. It was a real pleasure to watch as the children dived into the piles of books to find their ‘take-aways’. Thanks also to St Austell Library and The Market House traders who supported us. It really was an excellent event!