Fifty children from Samarès Primary School took part in a celebration of the world’s longest-running weekly comic at the Jersey Festival of Words thanks to the help of JT.
Beano Mega-Mischief, an interactive fun event took place on Saturday 23rd September. The comic, famous for its cheeky and fun-loving characters such as Dennis the Menace, his faithful hound Gnasher and Minnie the Minx, is celebrating 85 years of rebellious fun and laughter.
The festival organisers successfully applied for funding from JT’s Community Giving scheme, the company’s funding and support partnership, to enable 50 children to experience the unique opportunity to meet Beano editors Craig Graham and Mike Stirling and take a behind-the-scenes tour of Beanotown’s greatest secrets.
Pip Carpenter, Head of Commercial Market at JT, said: “As a mum of two, I’m really supportive of the benefits of reading from an early age. It sparks imagination, encourages creativity and really helps develop communication skills and confidence. We set up JT Community Giving to help good causes that not only give back to our local community but help us nurture and grow it and that’s exactly what this event did. I hope the children had a lot of fun and have been inspired to keep enjoying reading and writing.”
The festival worked with educational charity Every Child Our Future, whose aim is to give children a better chance of succeeding by focusing on literacy, numeracy and early years communication, to select the 50 children. In addition to a free ticket to the event, each child was given the Beano’s latest boomic – a cross between a book and comic – Dennis and Gnasher: Little Menace’s Great Escape.
Festival Director, Pippa le Quesne, added: “It is not just about getting children to read books, but also to enjoy them, and we find that children who get a book after being at an event are far more likely to read it. That’s why we decided to apply to JT Community Giving because it helps children who wouldn’t normally have access to events like this. The process was easy, and we can’t thank JT and our other sponsors enough for their support.”
