Vodafone Warriors Champion Literacy At Local Auckland Libraries

Vodafone Warriors NRL Reading Captain Jerome Ropati, Jeremy Latimore, and Junior Warriors Nathaniel Peteru and Carlos Tuimavave swapped sports shoes for school shoes to host one of four Konica Minolta League in Libraries school visits at Pakuranga Library, on Tuesday 17 May.

Reading and writing was once again on top of the Vodafone Warriors’ ‘cool list’ through the Konica Minolta League in Libraries initiative, which also announced a surprise element for the overall winning student Khodaysa Rajabi – for the first time, the winner’s story will be produced as an illustrated book.

Over 60 students from Panmure Bridge School and Wakaaranga School arrived by bus, bright-eyed and eager to meet the local sporting heroes. Each player was assigned a different reading or writing task and charged with signing off each completed activity with a prized autograph before students moved on to the next activity.

The popular programme aims to improve the literacy levels of year four and five students, by partnering with the sports stars and encouraging children to learn and enjoy the valuable life skills of reading and writing at an age when reading can become difficult.

“Konica Minolta is proud to continue this successful initiative and every year we are impressed by the quality of entries from young Vodafone Warriors fans. It was difficult to choose one stand-out story from the 350 entries”, said competition judge and Konica Minolta National Marketing Manager Josh Byers. “It is great to see the enthusiasm of the kids as they step off of the bus at each library visit. They are excited and ready to get creative with the literacy activities, this shows their respect for the players and game.”

Many of the stories were heartfelt and inspiring, like that of Panmure Bridge School’s Khodaysa Rajabi. Her story was chosen as the overall winning piece and will be printed by Konica Minolta as an illustrated book featuring the Vodafone Warriors. The book will be distributed to local schools.

The soft spoken nine-year old says she is excited that her work will be published and thinks her family will be very proud of her achievement.

Khodaysa’s story follows Jerome and his friends as they discover rugby league and pursue their passion for the game by secretly joining a rugby league team. Her winning work earned her a surprise school visit by Vodafone Warriors NRL Reading Captain Jerome Ropati and tickets to a Vodafone Warriors home game for her entire class, plus she was presented with her very own autographed Vodafone Warriors shirt - not bad for a girl who only learned about rugby league a few months ago.

“Reading and writing is an important life-skill no matter what career path you may choose,” Mr Ropati explained to Khodaysa’s excited and attentive classmates in Room 7 at Panmure Bridge School. “It’s one of the most important aspects of my job – every day I am reading and writing game plans, schedules, even nutrition and diet plans. Literacy is a valuable life skill to learn and enjoy for your future.”

Children from across Auckland aged seven to nine were challenged to put pen to paper to write an illustrated short story or poem, creatively incorporating their favourite Vodafone Warriors player, for the chance to win one of seven special library visits with their sporting heroes.

At each library visit, players worked with children to complete four literary activities, two of which focus on New Zealand books: Papa’s Donuts by Kate Moetaua, and Henry and the Flea by Brian Faulkner, about a young boy who dreams of one day playing for the Vodafone Warriors.

Each child who attended a library visit received a free copy of each of these books to take home. To ensure that all of the winning schools got the chance to meet their favourite players, Konica Minolta provided transport to and from the library visits.

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