A specially commissioned golden gritter to mark a Ripon engineering company’s 50th anniversary is starring in a children’s book.
To mark National Story Telling Week (January 30 – February 6) Econ Engineering has published Goldie The Gritter Saves the Day online and is inviting youngsters to not only to read the tale, but to also enter a colouring competition.
The book, which can be downloaded from the Econ website in pdf form, follows the adventures of gritter Goldie, driver, Dave, Molly the mechanic, and various friends he meets on the road.
Despite the ongoing national COVID-19 lockdown, organisers of National Story Telling Week, The Society for Storytelling is forging ahead with a number of online events and activities to encourage the age-old tradition of storytelling.
Econ Engineering Sales Director Andrew Lupton said: “Everyone loves a story, hence us creating this children’s book about our Golden Gritter, Goldie.
“Goldie takes pride of place in the reception at our Ripon headquarters and is a talking point for all visitors to the site.
“With this week being National Story Telling Week, we thought it might be nice for children in lockdown to be able to download the book, which is both a story and colouring book in one.
“In addition, we have decided to launch a competition and are inviting children to colour in the pages. We’d like to encourage families with children, aged up to 11 to take part and encourage teachers from primary schools to do the same for their pupils. The best will win some super gritter-related prizes.”
Econ Engineering, which has recently opened engineering hubs in Alloa, Scotland, and the Welsh capital of Cardiff, is the country’s largest producer of gritters and road mending vehicles.
It has a hire fleet of more than 800 vehicles, employs a 240-strong workforce and has a +80 per cent share of the country’s winter maintenance vehicle market.