On Monday 27 April 2020, Her Excellency Mrs. Linda Hurley, wife of the Governor General, will launch Paint the Town REaD’s (PTTR) new national campaign: REaD and Sing with Me at Home.
The campaign aims to remind families everywhere to read and sing with their children during this time of social isolation — and beyond.
Inspired by the social movement of children putting teddy bears in windows, PTTR groups will provide fun reminders and suggested activities to promote singing and reading at home.
Rhonda Brain, PTTR’s Creative Director, gets REaDy for the launch, by decorating her home in Parkes NSW in red, and reading with the Apprentice Joey from Paint the Swan REaD in WA, watched over by the Reading Bug.
In the middle of the world turning upside in the space of a few weeks, we are thrilled to tell you that our local PTTR community organisers are once more demonstrating their creative skills in how best to support families and children keeping the love of books alive — or introducing them to books for the first time.
From Paint the Swan REaD in WA, where staff from Clan Midland have spent ‘virtual’ time planning for how best to keep sharing the message of read, talk, sing and rhyme with your baby from birth, to Port Lincoln in SA, where the reading egg has still been visiting early childhood services, to D’Bay in Qld where Kooka their mascot has been very busy in services this week, through to Liverpool in NSW, where their mascot Gogo has been super busy practising nursery rhymes to sing with children online we are with you.
And in the background the PTTR Board has been meeting to implement strategic contingency plans
So, parents, grandparents, and all the family, keep an eye on your local PTTR facebook page and our national Paint the Town REaD Facebook Page for ideas and support. Check out your local library Facebook pages, too, for their live streaming of story times … you may even find your mascot there!
Thank you to the Australian Chinese Charity Foundation for their generous grant to fund the translation of PTTR’s ‘How to Feed Your Baby’s Brain’ into Chinese. Home language is so important for parents to use to read, talk and sing with their babies, so we are thrilled that we can now translate our most popular resource into Chinese.
Monica Chu, Chairperson of ACCF, with Barbie Bates, Executive Director of PTTR, at ACCF’s 2019 Annual Dinner, where the grant was announced.
Congratulations Paint Mackay REaD, who in partnership with F5F at Mackay library, won the Queensland Local Government Authority Award for outstanding community service for their Berky Birthday Books.
The Mackay team celebrating their award at the Queensland Public Libraries Association Conference Dinner last Thursday.
I am delighted to become Patron of Paint the Town REaD.
There are few things I am more passionate about than encouraging our young people to read, sing and rhyme. Many of us take these foundational skills for granted but it is far too common for children to arrive at school without the skills necessary to make the most of their early education. That is why Paint the Town REaD’s efforts are so critical. The more we encourage parents, carers and communities to read with children the better off they will be as individuals and we will be as a country.
I’m looking forward to supporting your cause and celebrating your efforts over the next five years.
It’s National Child Protection Week and at Paint the Town REaD we believe we can all help to create the lighthouses and safe harbours that families and children need. #playyourpart #ncpw www.napcan.org.au
Paint the Town REaD is thrilled to partner with Street Libraries across Australia, both at a strategic and local level.
Strategically we are forging communication and purchasing links, and locally we are looking together at some joint branding, as well as PTTR groups being invited to ‘adopt a Street Library’ for orphan libraries.
Our inaugural meeting L to R: Nic Lowe, ‘Captain’ of Street Libraries, Cecile Schuldiener, its General Manager, Barbie Bates, ED PTTR Ltd, Lindy Alwis and Vivi Martin, Co-ordinators of Paint Marrickville REaD.
Thank you Lady Cosgrove for being our first Patron – for your warmth, wisdom, laughter and commitment to the children of Australia.
Over these past three years we have truly valued meeting and celebrating with you our milestones and plans for the future.
We wish you and Sir Peter all the very best for your future adventures, knowing that they will include reading with children from birth!
Her Excellency Lady Cosgrove has been bitten again by the REaDing Bug at Admiralty House, Sydney, NSW. l to r: Rhonda Brain, Lady Cosgrove, Barbie Bates, Lindy Alwis, Tracey Kirk Downey.
The theme for this year’s Reconciliation Week resonates through us here at PTTR as we remember with gratitude the wise, beautiful and heartfelt Welcomes to Country that we have received from Aboriginal Elders as we travelled on the Paint Australia REaD Book Relay from Perth to the Pacific, these last couple of months. From Auntie Marie in Noongar Country to Aunty Lorraine in Dharawal Country, and the many Elders in between, we have been blessed by your truth and your courage. Thank you so much.
54 days of the Paint Australia REaD Book Relay have passed in a whirl of excitement and invitation, children’s delighted faces as they enjoy reading together and meeting new communities keen to work together to give their children a better start in life .
This week, the Relay team was present for the hatching of two new mascots…two new communities that have chosen to take the Paint the Town REaD pathway to increase the literacy levels amongst their children. Welcome Dhinawan the Emu for Lightning Ridge NSW, and Gracie Guy-a-wan the Shark for Taree NSW. Both mascots have been chosen by local Elders. As totems of Gamileroi and Biripi nations respectively, these mascots will be front and central, in supporting children to be introduced to the love of reading from birth.
Dhinawan, the baby emu hatches at an early morning community gathering in Lightning Ridge this week.
