Bonnyrigg woman's pledge for little bookworms

The two ladies with the black tops are from The Early Years Community Learning Team, the one on the far left is Audrey Lengthen and the one second from right is Amanda Bennett, the Ryze employee in the red is Brogan Garrity, and Joanne Cooper on the Right.

Joanne Cooper’s ‘Jo’s Little Bookworms ran a successful community book pledge after being approached by the Midlothian Early Years Community Learning team. This council team runs groups for children from birth to five months old, to engage parents in their child’s learning.

One of the companies that donated is Ryze adventure park in Mayfield. Last week Early Years team members Audrey Lengthen and Amanda Bennett gladly collected books from the staff at Ryze.

Joanne said: “They were struggling to provide enough books. They work in areas of deprivation. This will encourage more reading and hopefully increase literacy levels.

“I appreciate different businesses helping out. I’m asking for anything they can donate. They give me money and I purchase books. They can choose which books to donate. I received £190 in total from local businesses with Ryze kindly giving me £50.”

Joanne loves doing what she can to promote reading to children. She added: “It’s important to run this kind of group to promote that. I started Jo’s Little Bookworms in October 2016, just as something for me to do as I wasn’t working at the time.

“I have carried it on and this is my first community book pledge. I just approach businesses in my own time. It’s something I enjoy doing.”