On 5th March 2020, Bertram Books ran several activities on site in support of World Book Day, including fancy dress, a design a book spine competition, bake sales, a World Book Day themed quiz and a raffle. The proceeds for these activities were split between the World Book Day registered charity and East Anglian Air Ambulance – Bertram Group's charity of the year and also based on Broadland Business Park.

The most rewarding part of the day was when Where’s Wally, The Mad Hatter, Captain Hook, The Queen of Hearts, The Big Bad Wolf, The BFG, Woody the cowboy, Professor McGonagall and Little Red Riding Hood set off on an adventure to a number of local organisations around Norwich – nominated by their colleagues – to deliver book donations and other goodies to some very excited and grateful children. At all the schools we gave presentations about the importance of sharing stories, and shared their own story of the journey of a book at Bertram Group.

The travel route was…

  • Angel Road Infant School, where they joined an assembly with over 200 children in their pyjamas or onesies.
  • Firside Junior School, where they got to visit their amazing new library complete with book themed murals.
  • Norwich Primary Academy, where they joined another assembly and every single child and teacher was in fancy dress.
  • Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Children’s Ward, where they did a quick book drop off but found time to try out the play area!
  • Drayton Junior School, where they had the absolute privilege and tough job of judging a competition for the best dressed potatoes as book characters, and gave out some prizes to the winners.

They report it was a truly rewarding day and so wonderful to see the passion these children have for reading. The Bertram team were delighted to be able to make a book donation at each site.