National Game Playing Week 2006

Ireland's fourth annual National Game Playing Week (NGPW) took place in schools and workplaces across the country in October 2006.

The Dyslexia Association was very pleased to have been chosen again by leading board game company Hasbro as the beneficiary of the 2006 event. Game Playing day itself involved bringing €2 and a favourite board game to school to play on Friday 27th October 2006. All the funds raised came to the Dyslexia Association, to be used to fund special teaching for disadvantaged children with dyslexia. Each school that took part and raised funds has received a voucher for six free Hasbro board games.

This fundraiser involved a lot of work for both Hasbro, their PR company (Walsh PR) and the Dyslexia Association. All the primary schools in the country and all of the second level schools offer transition year were contacted to encourage them to take part. This was a very labour and time intensive effort given the numbers we had to contact, but we had many volunteers who photocopied letters, stuffed envelopes, phoned schools, so we would like to say a very big THANK YOU to all those who volunteered to help.

Thanks to all the hard work over 676 primary schools and 28 secondary schools registered to take part. To date, NGPW 2006 has raised just over €80,000 (Hasbro kicked off the fund with a generous contribution of €5000). This money is already being used to provide funded and reduced cost fees to financially disadvantaged children with dyslexia attending DAI workshops throughout Ireland.

A very special thank you goes to Anne Dermody, from Hasbro Ireland, and to Caroline Heywood and Gillian Martin from Walsh PR, not only for again selecting the Dyslexia Association as the beneficiary of NGPW 2006, but for all their work, help and support in making it such a great success. The success was not only in the funds raised but in the opportunity to raise awareness about dyslexia. Media coverage was extensive, with articles and photos in local and national newspapers, as well as coverage on radio and television. A big thank you goes to Kathryn McKiernan from The Den on RTE2 who lent her support and appeared in the official launch photos.

We certainly enjoyed being part of NGPW 2006 and it was great to get some feedback from the schools and children who had taken part. They enjoyed it greatly. It's not everyday that you get to play your favourite board games in school and also raise money for a very deserving cause!

DAI was particularly happy to work again with Hasbro on this initiative because all children, but particularly children with dyslexia, benefit from playing games. Games teach important social skills such as sharing, rules, taking turns, winning and losing. Playing board games can also develop the key skills needed for literacy and successful learning. Regular game-playing can contribute to developing the concept of turn-taking, visual alertness, visual discrimination, fine and gross motor movements, attention to the sound and letter value in words, number and time concepts, memory strategies, problem solving, deductive and inductive reasoning, vocabulary and a host of other skills.