With a Little Help From Our Friends

We are Target Who and in our crazy mission to spread our books out across the country we are receiving lots of help.  Help from family, friends, work colleagues, other Doctor Who fans and teachers.  All are working with us to ensure our books reach the school libraries, where a new generation of Doctor Who fans will discover and be enthralled by them.  Here we will break down one such journey to demonstrate just how people are aiding us.

One of the earliest and most supportive people to contact us was Nicola Gwilym, School Mentor at Dovedale Junior School in Liverpool.  We received a lovely email of support on the very morning of our very first delivery.  It ensured my day started with a smile as I nervously returned to my childhood school with our first bundle of books.  Shortly before the summer break began, Dovedale Junior School received a small parcel of books, and here is the crazy journey it took up the country to reach them.

1. The books were purchased in Essex and Andrew collected them and took them back to Fordingbridge in Hampshire.

2. David then travelled down from Gloucester and collected a large portion of the books to form the Gloucestershire Hub.

3. The nearest member of our group to Liverpool was Dave Pashby up in Leeds. Several hundred books were taken up to Birmingham by David’s wife Emma,who was meeting relatives for a 40th Birthday weekend treat in a hotel.  She passed the books to her sister Donna, who transported them up to Rotherham where she lives.  From here Dave collected them, forming a Leeds Hub.

4. Dave now asked for help around his workplace.  He managed to find someone working over in the firms Manchester office called Jon who lived in Runcorn willing to help, but how to get the books from Leeds to Manchester?

5. Dave then found a maintenance worker named Darren who volunteered to take the books over to Manchester.  This caused a slight unforeseen problem though! The company has two offices in Manchester and Darren mistakenly delivered them to the wrong one! This was sorted with the help of Liam who transported them to the correct Manchester office and passed the books to Jon.

6. Nicola travelled to Jon’s house and and collected the books along with two more sets for other Liverpool schools, which she then helped deliver.

So the full route is:

Andrew -> David -> Emma -> Donna -> Dave -> Darren -> Liam -> Jon -> Nicola -> Dovedale Junior School

Nicola told us:

We asked in assembly this morning for any Dr Who fans to meet with me - but to avoid a deluge I asked only for SERIOUS fans, ones who could name at least five of the Drs! I had twelve pupils who met with me and I told them the story of TargetWho. They were very excited and it was interesting how many of their parents were equally die-hard fans. Several of the children had some Dr Who books at home but only one had seen a book like the ones you presented to them.

I gave them each a picture quiz to do - they have to name as many of the Doctors and put them in order. I will mark them and maybe give them all a prize next week.

I have given each of them the task of suggesting ways in which we can use the books to encourage reluctant readers. They are meeting with me next week with their ideas and then we will put them into practise. All eight books have been given out to some of the pupils and you asked about the effect it had on them! Two of the boys asked if they could stay in and read the book at lunchtime, another lad was walking out of school towards his mum reading the book as he went. Some of the pupils who met with me I have never worked with before but there was genuine excitement about being involved in a new venture - to use Dr Who to get others to read. Who knows where this might lead the group?

During the course of communication with Nicola, we discovered that John Lennon was a former pupil of Dovedale Junior School.  Die hard Doctor Who fans will know that The Beatles made a cameo appearance in a 1965 episode of Doctor Who, singing Ticket to Ride on the TARDIS Time/Space Visualiser.  Now that gives me another idea …

Target Who would like to thank everyone involved in the transportation of these books to Liverpool

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Target Who Down Under

We are Target Who and over the summer our books reached our furtherest distance yet!

During the school summer holidays we were contacted by Mark Baker of Woodmancote Cricket Club.  The club had previously helped our cause back in June by purchasing and donating 75 current Doctor Who books to local schools, but Mark had thought of another way to help us.  He explained that he was originally from Australia and had relatives currently visiting.  He wondered if we would like his father to take a set of our books with him when he returned Australia.  We quickly agreed and thanks to his help the school library of Belgrave South Primary School now has a small selection of Target Who books on its shelves.

We are Target Who and now some of our books are half a world thanks to passion, communication, courtesy and teamwork.

Target Who would like to thank Mark Baker and family for aiding our cause.

Destination Scotland

We are Target Who and now that schools have reopened our crazy mission can continue.  

We hope you’ve all enjoyed the summer break.  We took a break from the blog and enjoyed some family time, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been ignoring Target Who completely.  During the break books have still been moving around the country into the custody of other group members and volunteers.  

With the Scottish schools returning before English and Welsh ones, our first deliveries of this academic year have been North of the border, thanks to the help of some kind people.

The wonderful Ruan Peat, librarian at Wick High School, organised her family’s return route home from a Devon holiday to pass near Gloucester. She collected the books for twenty Scottish Highland schools and delivered them all on her return home.  This included her family sailing over to Orkney with a bundle of books!

 Some of the Scottish Highland Schools that received Target Who deliveries.  Thanks Ruan

The amazing Jonathan Miller volunteered to deliver our books in the Warrington and Wigan areas, but also mentioned he was holidaying up in the Mull in Kintyre and could take some books with him.  While on holiday he delivered three sets on the mainland, the Isle of Gigha and the Isle of Arran respectively.  

The brilliant Gill Whitelaw delivered the books for 14 Edinburgh schools to the Wester Hailes Education Centre for onward distribution.  As soon as we have been notified that each set has reached its final destination we’ll add their pins to our map too.

Finally the fantastic Dave Pashby of the Target Who team took the books for five schools in Ayrshire with him on holiday and dropped them off at Kyle Academy, for onward distribution.

We still have other schools to reach in Scotland and we hope to have ways of reaching those arranged soon.

We are Target Who and our mission continues.

Target Who would like to thank Ruan Peat, Jonathan Miller, Gill Whitelaw and the teachers helping to distribute our books in their area.

Boxes of Delight

We are Target Who and this is what can happen when teachers invoke the magic of Doctor Who and mix it with the creativity of children.

 

 To be continued…

Target Who would like to thank the children of Barwell Church of England Academy for sharing some their amazing work.