The Ministry of Education recently partnered with the One World School Health Foundation on the fifth annual Rainforest of Reading Celebration.

The three-day program which ran from March 13 to 15, targeted approximately 8000 students from several schools across the island.

The first two days of the reading celebration took place at the Vigie Complex which targeted the northern districts. The celebration concluded at the Phillip Marcelin Grounds which targeted the districts in the south.

Co-Executive Director of the Canadian-based volunteer group, One World School Health Foundation, Sonya Clues, explained the layout of the program.

“This has been a year-long planning event back home in Ontario, selecting twelve different titles, creating the activities that the children are going to participate in,” she said. “Children have been assigned to represent one of the twelve titles of the books, almost like the Olympics of reading really, but instead of the countries marching in, they will be representing those books. Some have gone through the special extra effort of creating props and simple costumes to show their enthusiasm for that title.”

Annia Inniss, teacher at the Montessori Center, expanded on the experience leading up to the Rainforest of Reading Celebration.

“Because our students at the Montessori Center love to read, they really enjoyed the books. The books were very relatable to the experiences that they had. They enjoyed doing the passports because they are used to doing book reports so that was something that they really enjoyed. Most of them had similar books that they liked. Their favorite was “The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do.” They also liked “Happy Dreamers” because they are day dreamers as well so they had a really great experience getting ready for the Rainforest of Reading.”

In attendance at the event were Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Allen Chastanet, Minister for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, Hon. Dr. Gale Rigobert, and Former Governor General, Dame Pearlette Louisy.