Nottinghamshire County Council is appealing for people interested in learning new skills to become a volunteer for the forthcoming Summer Reading Challenge.

The council manages an annual summer holiday library challenge where children are encouraged to read up to six books and earn rewards on the way.

Last summer 10,000 children took part and more than 100 volunteers gave up some of their spare time – a total of 1,618 hours – to support the campaign and help children discover the pleasure of reading.

Volunteers have until May 20 to register their interest. The council is looking for people aged 14 upwards, who can commit around 12–15 hours (averaging around two to three hours a week) between 24th July and 3rd September.

Coun John Knight, committee chairman for culture, at said: “Last year Nottinghamshire enjoyed its biggest ever response from young children and their families to the Summer Reading Challenge so we are keen to build on that success.

“We also had a great response from people who were keen to volunteer their time and support children who were taking part. Again, we are keen to build on this and hoping to hear from people who want to take part this year.”

The following libraries are recruiting volunteers: Forest Town, Kirkby, Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, Southwell, Sutton and Warsop.

Trainee teachers, young people seeking to develop their CV and employability skills and many book lovers within local communities have benefited from the volunteering opportunities in recent years.

The tasks involved are:
• Sharing their own enthusiasm for reading by listening and chatting with children about the books they read during the challenge
• Explain to children and their parents/carer how the challenge works
• Helps register children for the challenge and hands out stickers and rewards when they complete various progression stages
• Keeps the challenge records up to date by completing and filing registration cards.

Those who are selected to take part will receive full training before starting and colleagues will also be on hand to answer questions.

Volunteers will also be able to claim for reasonable travel costs to and from the library and will receive a certificate for taking part which will be useful to add to their CV.

The theme of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge is Mythical Maze, which challenges children aged four to 11, to find their way around a labyrinth that introduces them to fantastical creatures from the world of legend and mythology, collecting stickers of each character along the way.

Application forms are available at: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/libraryvolunteers or you can contact Carolyn Gallagher on 07944 428 951 or email [email protected]. The closing date is Tuesday 20 May.

Find out more about the Summer Reading Challenge: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/summerreadingchallenge or follow #SummerReadingChallenge on Twitter.