Posted by Bill Duncan on Nov 26, 2019

The Bill and Lorna Boyd Charitable Trust, formed to commemorate Bill’s appointment to the office of Rotary World President in 2006, has been heavily involved in the supply of Usborne Illustrated English dictionaries to year 4 decile 1 schools since 2009. The Usborne books are supplied to their New Zealand agents Harper Collins Limited. To date the Trust has distributed through Rotary Clubs throughout New Zealand, close to 200,000 books estimated to have a retail value of approximately NZ$6m. Recently the Trust has added to its literacy library of books available, a book with flashcards for new entrants to primary schools called Rhyming around the Alphabet. The books were published by Wendy Pye Publishing Ltd and the Trust was assisted in this initial purchase by the Trillion Trust.

On 12 November we had the privilege to attend a presentation of 280 dictionaries to Students at Finlayson Park Primary School, in Manurewa, the largest decile 1 school in the country. We witnessed smiles all round and was made aware again of the great effort this Trust and the Pakuranga Club and its Auxiliary team are making to improve our literacy standards.

Recently with the help of Kiri Kirkpatrick, we presented the Rhyming around the Alphabet books to Year 1 students at Panmure Bridge School with great success.