A highlight of the Story Book Picnic was the presentation of prizes to the winners of the Young Writers’ Competition 2014 by Barossa Council Mayor Brian Hurn and Councillor Michael Seager:  First prize in each section was a Kobo e-reader donated by The Co-Op and minor prizes some beautiful books donated by Vinpac International.  In addition the prize of “A Reporter for a Day” was a presented by The Barossa and Light Herald, while a special prize of a Commendation for Poetry was donated by the Friends of the Barossa Library.

Winners were:  Aged up to 8 Years:  1st Samantha Lane of Hewwett, “Once There Was”; 2nd Alysha Seager of Mount Pleasant “the Lion Sisters”; and 3rd Jed Laycock of Lyndoch “The Old Ogre”.

9 to 12 years:  1st Elisheba Gore of Williamstown “Caught In the Back Paddock”; 2nd Laura Emms of Lyndoch “Dark Waters”; 3rd Eleanor Linke of Rowland Flat “A Day In the Life of Gyp”

13 to 15 years: 1st  Rhiana Broadwood of Tanunda “The Immortal Legend”;  2nd Lillian Fryer of Lyndoch “Dark Waters”; 3rd Isabella Bristow of Lyndoch “My Life Without Her” .

16 to 20 years:  1st Georgia Lawrie of Tanunda “The Promise”; 2nd Kate Wendt-dearlove of Nuriootpa “Haumnted”; and 3rd Gemma Schrapel of Nuriootpa “The Angel”

Reporter For a Day Award:  Georgia Lawrie

Special Commendation:  Caitlin Heppner of Nuriootpa.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Great day at Story Book Picnic on Sunday 13th April.  Perfect autumn weather and about 300 people enjoyed the beautiful setting at Seppeltsfield Winery with so many activities organised by the library staff, two concerts by Ticklish Allsorts, face painters, balloon artists, clowns, story-reading, Smokey the Bear with the Greenock CFS and so much more.

Friends of the Library and the Barossa Library are very proud of organising and presenting such an excellent community day – it is not often that such events are oriented to the family, but this ticked all the boxes.  We showed that books and literature can be fun!