The BER Program has not only delivered a brand new library to the students and community at Kangaroo Valley Public School, it has also helped a local company provide a position for a young apprentice.

Carpentry apprentice Charles Raath wanted to maintain his TAFE requirement while looking for other employment after the company he worked for had to let him go in July 2009.

While Charles approached Koori Habitat to find local employment, Ron Pearce from Pearce and Percy (P&P) Constructions, a family-owned business based in North Nowra, wanted to secure an Aboriginal apprentice as part of his company’s commitment to local participation, apprenticeships and Aboriginal participation through their involvement in BER.

Charles was offered a full time position with P&P, not just for the term of the contract, but to complete his apprenticeship.  Koori Habitat transferred Charles’s apprenticeship to P&P and he has been working with them since early September 2009.

Through his new role, Charles has worked at Kangaroo Valley Public School, one of the first completed BER projects in the Illawarra and South Coast region.  The school received $850,000 under Primary Schools for the 21st Century for a new library and students moved in around the beginning of May.

In the school’s newsletter, Kangaroo Valley Public School Principal John Bond said: “We love our new facilities and the children continue to read with enthusiasm.”

The school’s emphasis on reading will be highlighted at a Book Fair to be held during Education Week in August – an opportunity for the community to visit the new library and for the school to celebrate the interest and support the school’s parents give their children with reading.

“It really shines through in the passion our students have towards reading,” Mr Bond said.

The celebrations will continue with the official opening of the library on 11 August.

Mr Bond said the new library has been well received by the students and local community.

“The students are overjoyed to have a wonderful new library, which is popular during lunchtimes, as well as lesson time. The community are very impressed with the new facility and the swiftness of the program.”