The Three Peaks Training Diary has been following the team’s progress and our next entry comes from Colin MacGregor, TRO volunteer and Managing Director of Alexander MacGregor, who are kindly sponsoring the minibus for the trip.

The Three Peaks Team has just seven weekends left to cram in some serious exercise before the challenge commences on June 30th. Ten days ago, as part of Sam’s carefully programmed training regime, the team conquered Snowdon –albeit at a leisurely pace. All agreed it was a doddle but next time we attempt the climb, on Sunday 1st July at about 1pm, it will be the third and final peak of the 24 hour challenge – and the clock will be ticking relentlessly towards the deadline. It’s just possible that tired legs might be a little less willing (or able) to carry us swiftly up and down the highest peak in Wales.

And so, as the ‘oldie’ on the team and determined to succeed in the mission, a bit of extra-curricular training seems like a good idea. I’ve made the odd foray into the Welsh hills over the past couple of months – in snow, rain and some unseasonably warm March sun. Last Sunday I returned to one of my favourite walks at Llantisilio Mountain, a few miles west of Llangollen. Unlike Snowdon though, I met just one other walker all morning! At just short of 600metres this is not a big climb, but the ridge walk is really rewarding with some beautiful views of the River Dee, The Clwydian range and (on a clear day) Snowdon. And believe it or not, with a nod to the forthcoming adventure, the walk includes three peaks. At the end of the morning’s exertion, a pint of foaming ale at The Sun in the village of Rhewl helped stave off any risk of dehydration – perfect.

So will I be ready for the 3 Peaks? I don’t know. My knees worry me. So for the next few weeks training will step up and Housman’s Reveille, from A Shropshire Lad (and yes I am a Shropshire lad!), will continue to get me out of bed – early:

Wake: the silver dusk returning
Up the beach of darkness brims,
And the ship of sunrise burning
Strands upon the eastern rims.

Wake: the vaulted shadow shatters,
Trampled to the floor it spanned,
And the tent of night in tatters
Straws the sky-pavilioned land.

Up, lad, up, ’tis late for lying:
Hear the drums of morning play;
Hark, the empty highways crying
‘Who’ll beyond the hills away?’

Towns and countries woo together,
Forelands beacon, belfries call;
Never lad that trod on leather
Lived to feast his heart with all.

Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber
Sunlit pallets never thrive;
Morns abed and daylight slumber
Were not meant for man alive.

Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey’s over
There’ll be time enough to sleep.

Like everyone else on the team, I’m conscious that this is not just about the personal challenge of completing a gruelling 24 hours but more importantly about raising some serious money for The Reader Apprenticeship Programme. So for all our blog readers out there who haven’t yet sponsored the event – please support us now with a donation at http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/trothreepeaks.

Before I came to the groups I was housebound. I had no motivation, never spoke to no one, had no confidence; unhappy, basically. I was nervous when I first come [to the group] and didn’t know what to expect – I just thought, ‘what am I doing?!’ But when I went in, everyone greeted me and straight away I knew it was a friendly place so I relaxed a bit. When I first heard what we’d be doing [in the group] – reading – I thought, ‘is this for me?!’ then, once [the facilitator] began I started getting dead into it. The atmosphere and communicating with people – even the layout with the biscuits on the table and getting a drink – is good. It’s like being at home.

I was dreading reading, thought I’d run away, but [the facilitator] said that there was no pressure to read if you didn’t want to and then I felt ok. I never read, not once, when I first came, but then I did the training. I used to stutter my words – was dead edgy talking to people – but even my communication has improved. The other volunteers are lovely – lots of friendly faces when we meet up. To know them is, well, really nice. It’s an opportunity to make friends. The support [from Reader staff] has been great, too.

It’s given me the motivation to get out the house and do more stuff. It’s turned my life around. I’m a completely different person – sometimes I don’t recognise myself, I think, ‘Is this me?!’. It’s made me want to get out and get a life. It’s given me opportunities I’ve never had before. It’s given me the opportunity to do more with my life – I’ve had anxiety and depression and it’s helped me come out of that. You can express how you feel.  I’ve achieved something.  I used to feel like a nobody and now I feel like a somebody.  I’ve never been proud of myself before. I am now. I like feeling helpful.  It’s nice to be wanted – I’ve never had that before, I’ve never really been praised. I never used to take compliments; even if someone praised me I couldn’t take it, but now I’m learning to not take the negatives, not to worry what other people think, but just – y’know – see the positives. I used to not the like the world, not like people, but I do now.

I never liked poetry before and now I love it! It’s something I actually enjoy, I like reading something I can relate to. That one the other day (The More Loving One by WH Auden), that was just brilliant! When you leave [a group] it gives you a light, it lights up the rest of your day. I’d suggest this to every single person in the world – it’s fantastic! It changes your aspect – it’s amazing.

When asked whether there was anything more she would like to add, E said, ‘People should know just how friendly it is, it’s really important. Everyone is so welcoming.’

E has gone from strength to strength in her role; having recently been asked to share her experience of how GIR has changed her attitude to reading with a local MP, as well as expanding her current voluntary work with TRO. E has expressed a wish to go to college and one day work for TRO in a paid capacity, saying, ‘I’ve never known what I wanted to do before, but this is it.’

We couldn’t be more pleased to have her with us.

Here at TRO, we’re passionate about helping people like E overcome some of the challenges they face and transform their lives. That’s why our major fundraising campaign for 2012 is The Reader Apprenticeship Programme: Building Opportunities for Life. We’re aiming to raise £14,000 to employ a young care-leaver to work with us in Liverpool and take their first steps towards independence.

To find out how you can support this vital cause, please visit our website.

Our first entry in the Three Peaks Training Diary comes from Eleanor Stanton, our Project Manager for Get Into Reading Liverpool.

I must admit that when the idea of doing the Three Peaks Challenge was first mooted at The Reader, I thought to myself, how hard can it be? It’ll be fine. Easy, even. It’ll be a laugh.

The team (including Eleanor, far right) pose mid-climb, with Niall helpfully pointing them in the right direction - upwards.

Having returned from my first training walk up The Old Man of Coniston, I feel it necessary to revise my initial musings on the subject and come clean. I’m not fit enough; not by a long shot. The sight of me panting and puffing up the side of a, frankly, average-sized hill was not a pretty one. I practically had to be pushed up the last third, to the sounds of my feeble wheezy protests: “I can’t do it, I just can’t do it”.

When I eventually reached the top of Coniston, to find everyone else on the team happily sunbathing and tucking in to their sandwiches, the dreadful reality finally hit me: this is going to be hard, terrifyingly hard. And, if I’m honest, it is all I can do to stop myself from shrieking with fear, dropping out of the team and leaving the gruelling task of climbing three mountains in 24 hours up to “the sporty ones”, i.e. not me.

Before the hell of Coniston the challenge was, to me, entirely a psychological one; mind over matter and all that stuff. People who whinged or complained or, worse, dropped out were sissies and babies and would be letting the team down. I had more mettle than that. Preparation was the key and the challenge would be comfortably within my reach.

I have certainly been taking the preparation seriously, if preparation means expensive and meticulous shopping. I have acquired a beautiful new pair of comfy walking boots with coordinating socks, a pretty purple rain jacket, a matching fleece and backpack, some walking poles and a water bag with a clip-on drinking spout. I’ve also been pretty good at planning: putting together a comprehensive and well-organised first aid kit, printing off walking guides for various potential training locations, talking about the Three Peaks Challenge, lots of talking.

I think that somewhere at the back of my mind I did know that it would be a good idea to do some proper training but, what can I say? Time has

What goes up, must come down...

slipped by, and now we are three months away from the big day and although I have lots of lovely shiny equipment, I’m still unfit. Did I mention that the challenge involves walking up and down three mountains in 24 hours? Mind over matter, mind over matter – seems lame now.

So, this is my training schedule for the next three months:

1. Running around my local park every other evening during the week. Last night I didn’t even make it round once before I felt as though I was having a heart attack, but at least I tried, right?
2. Zumba class once a week as the humiliation of being purple-faced by the second dance will definitely spur me on to get fitter.
3. Hilly walks every weekend. This weekend I am going to see how fast I can climb and descend Mam Tor in Derbyshire.

I am trying very hard to regain my initial enthusiasm for the upcoming challenge, but the dread of the task ahead and the fear of failing or letting the team down is pretty huge. What I am keeping in mind, though, is the fantastic cause we are raising money for and the fact that the money we raise will change someone’s life.

One sure way to spur me on, and all of my team mates for that matter, is to get sponsoring; to donate as much as you can afford and to help us reach our £14,000 target here. The idea of raising all that money certainly puts 24 hours of pain and misery into perspective.

Donate today! http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/trothreepeaks

With an impressive fundraising target of £14,000, we aim to raise enough money to employ one young person to work here with us at TRO HQ in Liverpool next year, specifically a young care-leaver between the ages of 16-22. Having done a great deal of work with Looked After Children in Merseyside over the past 4 years, we feel passionately about providing these young people with the means to build an independent and fulfilled life.

The apprenticeship will be a life changing experience, consisting of practical, community-based, creative work experience in a flexible programme that will accommodate complex needs and develop several core competencies:

• Social: Social Awareness and Social Skills
• Emotional Resilience: The ability to cope with rebuffs which may be short-term or shocks which consume long periods of time
• Enterprise & Creativity: The ability to shape situations, imagine alternatives, remain open to new ideas, problem-solve and work in teams
• Discipline: Inner discipline to pursue goals and the ability to cope with external discipline

 No formal qualifications will be required to enter the programme; we want to support individuals with a spark, or a desire to make something of their lives, or with passion to learn or to change.

The apprenticeship will also provide financial support; Looked After Children are statistically the most underprivileged in our society, and here at TRO we aim to offer a wage that will help turn their lives around. We will offer an hourly starting wage of £6.32, which is well above the apprentice national minimum wage of £2.60 (£4,732 per year). There are 985 Looked After Children living in Merseyside, vulnerable young people who face huge emotional, educational and financial  pressures when they turn 16 and we are determined to support them in a life changing way. Paying a young apprentice who has recently left care £4,732 per year will not give them the financial support to live independently or to significantly improve their quality of life. This is why we want to raise the money ourselves, so that we can pay these young people a living wage that will give them the opportunity to overcome some of the many challenges that they face. 

So, how will we do it? Let me hand you over to our wonderful Mr Niall Gibney, who will unveil some of our fundraising plans….

Hello, I’m Niall. I’m the Community Development Assistant here and first apprentice here at The Reader Organisation. As it stands, I’m one and a half years into my apprenticeship and I’ve already undergone a wide variety of tasks during my time here! However, this year I’ve been given the ultimate task of them all – to be the driving force behind our organisation’s effort to raise £14,000 via the use of community fundraising! Sounds like a biggie? Well, it is! If I can put this into perspective, last year, our whole organisation raised £3,000 via this type of fundraising, so this year’s £14,000 target is a whopping increase! As you can imagine a lot of hard work will be put in by TRO staff and we have already started fundraising with things such as: a collection in Liverpool University on World Book Day, a Valentines event at The Lauries, a cake sale, Amazon fundraising, an Easter egg raffle, a raffle at the Bebington Library Dickens Celebration, and these are all leading up to our MAMMOTH Three Peaks fundraiser….But I’ll leave Eleanor to tell you more about that in the next blog.

So there you have it, that is what we hope to do over the next 12 months and as I believe in this vital cause you will most likely be hearing much more from me…

Visit our website to find out more about how you can donate and keep checking the blog to find out about how you can help with our first major fundraiser – the Three Peaks Challenge!

From today until 7th February copies of six stories from former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo’s Mudpuddle Farm series will be handed out  free with Happy Meals. Finger puppets of characters from the series will accompany each book to encourage parents to read with and bring the stories to life with their children.

The promotion is being backed by Harper Collins, who publish the Mudpuddle Farm series, and The National Literacy Trust, whose recent research revealed that one in three children in Britain do not own a book. Director Jonathan Douglas said:

We are very supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.

Having seen for ourselves how valuable just one book can be to children, and having reached so many with Our Read we think that such a promotion is a fantastic way to extend the reach of reading. Given that eight out of ten families with young children visit McDonalds at least once a year, it’s great to know that they’re contributing to getting more children reading.

The book’s editor, Frances Macmillan, tells us on the book’s blog:

The writers are all from very different backgrounds. Some grew up with a multitude and variety of wonderful books within their reach; some had parents who imparted to them a fierce desire for books and for learning; for others, books were hard to come by, or even illicit. But all ten are united here in a passionate belief in the distinctive and irreplaceable pleasures and powers of reading.

In a year of rude awakenings to low levels of literacy and a widespread apathy towards books and reading, this book demands an interruption. Stop What You’re Doing and Read. Read these essays, because they aim to convince you to make reading part of your daily life. Read a novel because it will enable you to travel in time and space, or else quicken your sense of ordinary existence – family tensions, falling in or out of love, growing up or growing old.  Read a poem, because it won’t be as difficult as you think, and it might help you uncover and articulate a thought or a feeling previously buried deep. Read a story, if you’re short on time, because it imposes a unique period of peace and concentration into your busy life. Read out loud, to your children, to a partner, because reading together casts a potent and intimate spell.

The book aims to start people talking and thinking about books, and valuing reading itself in a new way, so we’re starting up a blog as a way of carrying on that conversation. We want to hear from readers – which books or poems do you love? Which book or poem changed the way you see the world? Have you ever found consolation or relief in reading a great book? Do you ever read books or poems aloud? We’ll be recommending great books throughout the year, encouraging debate about the importance of reading and we want to hear from you.

Read more about the book and share your comments on the Stop blog. You can also ask questions, recommend great books and join in the debate.

Help us remind everyone about the transformative power of reading and to build the Reading Revolution even further. Buy your copy now. Stop what you’re doing and read it.

You can follow Jane Davis, Director of The Reader Organsiation, here on Twitter and also over here, on her blog.

Getting children and young people into reading is a top priority amongst us at The Reader Organisation; we want everyone to discover the joys of books, but it is especially important that children experience the incredible imaginative power of reading in their formative years. We are constantly coming up with new ideas to engage children with literature – this year alone we have given away 50,000 free copies of the exclusive-for-TRO book The Unforgotten Coat written by award-winning children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce as part of the biggest Our Read ever, as well as running a range of events and workshops alongside to support the shared reading adventure, and on Sunday we held the second Ha’penny Readings – an event full of fun, laughter and wacky entertainment with lots of reading thrown in, designed especially for kids.

But while the statistics do clearly point to a problem, it’s not just to do with the matter of owning books - but instead whether children are motivated to read them once they have them in their hands. There’s certainly no shortage of books available to buy for reasonable prices and many children across the country are in possession of items that cost much more. The real problem that is to be tackled is a lack of reading aspiration.

The various shared reading projects we run with children - the latest currently being developed in schools in Glasgow –  introduce them to the sheer pleasure of books, encouraging their individual passion and enthusiasm for reading to grow and leading them to read more and more often (and perhaps buy a book with their pocket money). Often, it only takes one story being read to a child or one book given as a gift to spark off excitement and a desire for reading that will last a lifetime.

A fortnight ago, Niall started our worldwide literature journey off by taking us all the way to Brazil; now we’ll jump from South America over to Central Europe, as I’ll be your tour guide for exploring the literary sights of the Czech Republic.

Before it became a popular stag and hen party hotspot, Prague – the capital city of the Czech Republic – was regarded for two quite famous literary exports. The first, a person: the author of many of the 20th century’s most notable novels and short stories, Franz Kafka, who was born in the city in 1883 (when it was still a part of pre WWI Austria-Hungary). The second, a book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, written in 1984 by Milan Kundera. The novel immortalises Prague in the midst of what was one of the most difficult and significant times in the Czech Republic’s history – the Prague Spring of 1968, an attempt to reform Czech communism, of which Kundera himself was involved. Despite its title, the book may be considered anything but ‘light’ in its subject matter; dealing with the fate of the individual and suggesting that in the end, such a fate is meaningless as in an infinite universe the life of one person is insignificant – or as Kundera would put it, unbearably light.

The Strahov Monastery Library

Given this cheery philosophical outlook, it might be worth considering how best to spend an ultimately futile existence. Surely a pretty good way of going about things would be to soak up the contents of as many books as possible, as does one of the novel’s main characters, Franz (perhaps named after Kafka? Seems like a handy coincidence). Franzes both of the fictional and the Kafka variety would certainly be happy that they lived in a city containing such a historic, intricate and well-stocked library as the Strahov Monastery Library. Part of the Strahov Monastery, the library is 868 years old and has withstood such perils as fire and army invasion to hold over 16,000 books alongside 110,000 volumes of monastic writings – one of the oldest collections in the Czech Republic. With its beautiful and incredibly ornate Baroque interior and several special library rooms, the Strahov Monastery Library is as much of a tourist attraction as a library. Unfortunately given the rare and ancient quality of many of the books housed there, so much as a human breath would be likely to adversely affect their preservation; therefore most of the library is strictly off-limits to up close and personal inspection. You can however go on a virtual 360 degree tour of the library (also handy if you can’t afford the air fare to Prague).

Something that allows much wider access to literature for the Czech Republic’s readers – and those beyond – is the Libraries For All project. The Multicultural Center Prague is a partner in the project, which has the goal of upgrading local public libraries in the city (as well as also operating in Austria, Sweden and Germany) to ensure that they fully serve the needs of the Czech Republic’s migrant community. Libraries For All is working to make libraries in the Czech Republic truly multicultural, involving, diverse and democratic – an aim that Kundera with all his political activism would surely be proud of.

This  vibrant anthology explores the theme of survival, with poems about war, weather, growing ill and growing old as well as about cities and landscapes, art and music, trees and turtles and the many things that add richness to our lives.

Featuring many established poets such as Patience Agbabi, David Harsent, and TRO supporter Rebecca Goss, the anthology also introduces the work of exciting new writers. It is  due to be launched on 6^th December with an event at Keynes College, University of Kent.

To find out more about WordAid, the book, and to purchase a copy, please visit:  http://wordaid.blogspot.com/p/publications.html.

Well, now I have your attention, so let us start with our first country or as they say in Brazil: numero um.

I’m going to try to do this without explaining Spanish colonialism in Southern America. So let’s see how that works out. Brazil is the 6^th largest country in the world with a population of over 192 million people; it’s the largest country in South America and the fifth largest country in the world! It’s even got nice weather.

The culture of Brazil and its people is very mixed – a bit like our own. It involves mainly Portuguese, African and Native Indian ideas and customs mixed into the melting pot of European and Western values.  Which I think makes it a beautiful country…

On to the main event: in Brazil there is a mythological creature called Saci who is widely regarded as the most popular figure in Brazilian folklore – folklore being something I have always been interested in, probably because they were the first stories told around the campfire to keep the children from being naughty and well let’s be honest they were quite imaginative and entertaining. Saci is a little prankster with dark skin, a magical red hat, holes in his palms and the smoker of a pipe – I forgot to mention he only has one leg and at one time was on the receiving end of most of the blame for the country’s small problems e.g. ‘who threw that egg?’ ‘Saci’ ‘who soured the milk?’ ‘Saci’ ‘who smashed the pottery?’ ‘Saci.’ This little prankster was probably like a mini god-send for all mischievous Brazilian children – and adults.

Still want to know more about him? How’s about this:

He can make himself invisible, transform into a bird called a Matitaperê, he will lose his powers if he runs across a stream and if you leave him some tobacco he will be appeased for a while (sounds like some people I know).

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

Same place, two weeks time, to hear all about the Czech Republic.