7 August 2015

A community celebration was held at the Smithton Christian Fellowship to mark the close of the journey of the Reading Bug Egg.

The Reading Bug Egg was a HIPPY Smithton initiative, jointly funded by the Circular Head Council through the Circular Head Education and Training Consultative Committee (CHETCC) as part of the greater Learn for Life Community Literacy Plan.

Circular Head Education and Training Consultative Committee Chairwoman and Circular Head Deputy Mayor Jan Bishop said the whole of community project engaged the Circular Head community in reading since its inception late last year.

“The Egg was ‘discovered’ in November by a Circular Head Council worker and determined by a local vet to be a rare Reading Bug Egg, which needed to be read to in order to hatch,” Cr Bishop said.

“Over the past nine months the Egg visited seven Circular Head Schools, two childcare centres, the library, a number of service providers and community organisations as well as attending public events such as the local Christmas Parade, Circular Head Show and the annual Twilight on the Duck festival.”

Cr Bishop said the Egg even attended a Council meeting and was read to by a number of elected members.

“We are always hatching ideas for the community, but during the egg’s visit it was more about promoting the importance of literacy in the community,” Cr Bishop said.

“The community exposure across Circular Head has helped to raise awareness of the importance of reading particularly in families with young children.”

Cr Bishop said the project was very successful in engaging the whole community in the promotion and encouragement of reading and learning.

“This has been a great partnership of government and non-government organisations with a number of community partners including local schools, the Smithton LINC Tasmania and Time Out on Emmett, also taking part to help engage the community in reading and literacy,” Cr Bishop said.