Young and Old Unite for ‘Story Time’
Still looking for a Christmas gift for your children? Why not give the gift of reading and contribute to a good cause by gifting a copy of “Story Time”?The National Council on Ageing launched the brand new Belizean storybook today. The publication aims to bring older and younger persons together, as well as to raise funds for worthy projects. About seven years ago, the Council came up with a T.V. show with older persons telling Belizean stories to youngsters – and last year they decided to expand the project with a book. News 5 was at the launch and spoke with Ixchel Poot, the Executive Director of the National Council on Ageing.
Ixchel Poot
Ixchel Poot, Executive Director, National Council on Ageing
“The stories come from a variety of authors of, all Belizean authors, the few that I authored myself as the program officer. We have a story by Sheryl Hulse and Mr. Hernan Ochaeta. What we also have are stories that have been written from other collections, so those are credited as author unknown. But they are all locally written Belizean stories, all set in Belize. And in the filming of the story time episodes, we travel all the way down to Punta Gorda. So, this product itself really captures Belize and the reality of our Belizean children.”
Andrea Polanco
“Now, why did the Council on Ageing decide to do this publication?”
Ixchel Poot
“This particular project came out of our education committee and we were looking for a new and innovative way to connect generations, so this is actually an inter-generational project; finding a way that we can place older persons and younger persons together, give them an opportunity to share and learn from each other and create stronger bonds and relationships.”
Andrea Polanco
“Reading this book – what would you like to see children take away from it?”
Ixchel Poot
“I would like to see children read the book with an older person and really learn from the life lessons. The stories really talk about reinforcing positive identity, anti-bullying, sharing, respect and those are all qualities that we would love to see develop in our country; so I would love to see our children take that away from reading the books. All the proceeds from this project go towards our inter-generational programs and projects that we have at the Council. Right now we are working on our adapt a grand-parent program which is also linking older persons to younger persons.”
The book is available for thirty dollars and sold at the Angelus Press, The Book Center in Belize City, Dakers Book Store in Belmopan, Image Factory, and at the office of the National Council on Ageing.
