Warriors lead library reading scrum

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Players from the Vodafone Warriors and Vodafone Junior Warriors visited Pakuranga Library, in Auckland last month, to deliver an important message, and read with local school children who topped the League in Libraries table in an Auckland-wide literacy competition. 
The third annual Vodafone Warriors League in Libraries programme, in partnership with Konica Minolta, aims to show kids that ‘reading is cool’ and improve the literacy levels of year four and five students, encouraging them to learn the valuable life skills of reading and writing at an age when reading can become difficult.
Vodafone Warriors NRL Reading Captain Jerome Ropati, team mate Michael Luck and Junior Warrior Charlie Gubb were on hand to help students from Oranga School and Sunnyhills Primary School complete their reading and literacy activities in a special afternoon visit to Pakuranga Library on Tuesday 20th July.
“We were really impressed by the passionate and enthusiastic entries from young Vodafone Warriors fans around Auckland,” said competition judge and Konica Minolta national marketing manager Josh Byers.
“This is third year of League in Libraries and each year it gets tougher to pick out a standout piece. The writing is so creative and the stories and poems really capture the kids’ respect for the players and love of the game.”
Children aged seven to nine were challenged to create an illustrated short story or poem incorporating their favourite players. The students wrote vivid tales about meeting and training with the Vodafone Warriors, and imaginative descriptions of their performances on the field.
The winning schools received two Canterbury of NZ rugby league balls and tickets to a Vodafone Warriors home game.
The overall winning student Finn Nicholson from Northcote Primary School wrote a brilliant short story about the Warriors hat-trick win against the Brisbane Broncos which included colourful descriptions like ‘fighting over the ball like lions’.
The nine-year-old’s award-winning work earned him a surprise school visit by Vodafone Warriors NRL Reading Captain Jerome Ropati, a signed Vodafone Warriors shirt, and tickets to a Vodafone Warriors home game for his entire class.
“Reading and writing is a really important life skill which you will need for any job,” Ropati told an attentive Room 12 at Northcote Primary School.
“Just as doctors and lawyers read contracts and write reports, league players also read and write game plans and assessments that help us with our games.”
At each library visit, players work with children to complete four literary activities, two of them focusing on NZ books: one is Papa’s Donuts by Kate Moetaua and the other Henry and the Flea by Brian Faulkner, a story about a young boy who dreams of one day playing for the Vodafone Warriors.
Each child attending a library visit receives a free copy of one of these books to take home.
Konica Minolta plans to publish the collection of the students’ short stories and poems about the Vodafone Warriors after the competition, to present to the schools involved.