I was recently invited alongside writer, Naomi Irvin, to attend and celebrate the Writers Festival at Napoleons Primary School. Earlier this year Naomi and I were asked by Integra to work together on a children’s book that captured the story of the Lucas Girls and their journey to planting the Avenue of Honour and building the Arch of Victory.

To my delight, the book, ‘Three Thousand, Eight Hundred and One Trees (and each one has a name)’ was used throughout the two-week writer’s festival across all year levels. The children created lego Avenue of Honours, made lanterns to remember our fallen ANZACs and decorated their school hallway with their activities and artwork.

Their creativity, enthusiasm and community spirit captures everything that the book was created for. They learnt not just about why we mark the 11th of November every year as Remembrance Day but also how the Ballarat community was involved in WWI. Napoleons Primary School welcomed Naomi and I in for the morning to present the book and read to the different year levels. We finished the morning with a minute’s silence and wreath laying ceremony.

My thanks goes to Napoleons Primary School for their incredible work and invitation to be involved. It was an honour.