Truckies give the gift of reading

Five hundred primary and intermediate age children around the country will be awarded the prestigious Mainfreight Award for Excellence in Attitude during their end of year school assembly.

This special award is given to a senior student from each Duffy Books in Homes school and recognises outstanding attitude in all areas of school life.

Transport company Mainfreight sponsors this award annually, providing each school with a reference book, an engraved silver cup and a certificate personally signed by Bruce Plested, executive chairman of Mainfreight.

This year’s book is The DK Complete Atlas of the World – The Definitive View of the Earth which has been created with state-of-the-art digital mapping software and satellite data to present high-definition maps, in a modern design, for every region of the world.

Linda Vagana, former Silver Fern netballer and general manager of Duffy Books in Homes was impressed by this year’s choice of book.

“Every year we hear from so many schools who are looking forward to being able to present this award. They are always so grateful to Mainfreight for being given this opportunity.”

Duffy schools are selected from areas where the children are less likely to have the opportunity to own their own books.

The programme was developed following a visit by Alan Duff to Camberley School in Hastings in 1992. He found that many of those children came from bookless homes and showed little, if any, interest in reading.

From this grew the key concept of book ownership prompting an interest in reading and a love of books. This would also create the opportunity to share the books with other family members.