The Canberra Raiders have helped support the Australian Library and Information Association’s ‘National Simultaneous Story Time’ initiative by sending club cadets Andrew Heffernan and Scott Doyle to read to over 100 children at Gungahlin Library.
The initiative is supported by the NRL and will see more than 410,000 Years 2-4 schoolchildren at over 2300 locations across the country have Ursula Dubosarsky’s Too Many Elephants in This House read to them, making it Australia’s biggest single simultaneous story time since its inception in 2000.
NRL Head of Community, Adam Check, said: “National Simultaneous Story Time is a program that the NRL is incredibly proud to be associated with as part of our Community, Culture and Diversity program.
“We fundamentally believe that the profile of the game and its players can have a positively profound influence in the community, particularly in key areas such as education.
“It is particularly exciting to see schools in remote and rural settings involved in the event through the use of video conferencing because these communities are such an integral part of the Rugby League family.”
Heffernan, one of the stars of the club’s NYC side, was thrilled to be involved in the initiative.
“The National Simultaneous Story Time is a fantastic idea and Scott and I feel very privileged to be involved in it,” Heffernan said.
“Being able to read is such an important tool in life and we had a lot of fun reading in front of the kids and it was very pleasing to see how much they enjoyed the experience.
“Personally, I thoroughly enjoy reading whether it be for my studies at university or just reading for enjoyment.
“Children often look up to Rugby League players as role models so it is only right that we encourage them to not only improve their footy skills but to improve their skills in the classroom as well.”
