On Monday 29 August 2022, the students of Waitetuna, Te Mata and Raglan Area School enjoyed a fun-packed visit from Harold the giraffe, in town sharing his new book, Harold’s Spots.
Harold is the much-loved mascot of Life Education Trust. The trust, with Harold and an educator in tow, visits schools nationwide teaching students about health and wellbeing, and inspiring them to make positive choices. The programmes are delivered in high-tech interactive mobile classrooms, ensuring students at even the most remote schools can benefit from a visit with Harold.
Harold’s Spots was the brainchild of the Waipa–King Country Life Education Trust, as a way of spreading Harold’s messages to more people in the community and encouraging a love of reading in families. Sales of the book will also help raise the $200,000 the trust has to find each year to keep its classrooms on the road.
The book tells the story of what happens when Harold’s mate Oxpecker decides Harold’s spots are ‘a bit blotchy, a tad wonky for spots’ and need to be improved. Bright spots, round spots, spots that tickle and squirm – the more bizarre Harold’s new spots become, the unhappier he grows. Can Harold still be Harold without his spots?
Written by local author, Sarah Johnson, with pictures by Waikato illustrator Deborah Hinde, Harold’s Spots shares some of the trust’s main messages – that each of us is precious and wonderful in our own unique way, and the importance of holding your head high and not looking down at your boots (or hooves).
Trustee Kay Moir, who together with fellow trustee Donna Davies pioneered the book project, says that the book took shape in the villages around Raglan, with Sarah and Deborah attending sessions when the mobile classroom was visiting Te Kowhai and Te Pahu schools, in order to gather ideas. Then Sarah wrote the story … in Raglan!
“It has a been a great pleasure for us to make a special visit with Harold to Raglan, in order to share his new book with the local schools,” says Kay. “Our mobile classroom regularly visits the schools in the Raglan area, although this has been disrupted in recent years due to Covid. It is lovely to be back, and to be reading this warm, uplifting story with local children. Harold’s messages about resilience and positivity are particularly relevant for children and families right now.”
Life Education Trust has been delivering its educational programmes in New Zealand schools for the past 30 years. In the Waipa–King Country region alone, the trust regularly visits 60 schools, delivering fun interactive sessions to over 8000 students each year.
Harold’s Spots is available from local Raglan bookshops or by contacting Kay or Donna at booksales@lifeeducation.org.nz
