TOTAC Launches New Club to Encourage Writing, Reading in Morocco

 A woman looks at a book in the "El Ateneo Grand Splendid" bookstore. AFP
A woman looks at a book in the "El Ateneo Grand Splendid" bookstore. AFP
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TOTAC Launches New Club to Encourage Writing, Reading in Morocco

 A woman looks at a book in the "El Ateneo Grand Splendid" bookstore. AFP
A woman looks at a book in the "El Ateneo Grand Splendid" bookstore. AFP

The Moroccan Academy TOTAC has announced the establishment of a book club named "TOTAC Book" that will allow its members to read, write, and train on public speech.

The club will focus on the bestselling books in personal development and professionalism, and the biographies of eminent personalities, as well as literature. The goal behind establishing the club is not only reading but rather engaging in the process of learning and training for success.

"TOTAC Book" plans to dedicate a special time for literature by hosting writers, novelists, and poets to talk about their works during each of its meetings scheduled every two months.

The club has also set two other goals: the first is to accompany its members and encourage them to write a collective book centered on what was learned through their readings every year, and the second is to encourage them to speak in front of the audience within a space allocated for this purpose in each meeting.

The official launch of the Casablanca-based club was marked by three keynotes: the first was on the state of reading in Morocco, provided by Fatma Kachkach, member of the club, master coach and teacher in communication; the second, on the club charter, goals, and how it works, addressed by Dr. Nazha Hefti, a founding member of the club; the third on the experience of writing a book and how writing can serve as a tool for personal and professional success by journalist Mohamed Charrouk.

The ceremony was concluded by the election of the club's committee.

TOTAC is an academy of training that graduates trainers, consultants, lecturers. It includes a laboratory for pedagogical creativity (educational), a modern and innovative training method developed based on the latest studies and research in the field of pedagogy and cognitive neuroscience.

The TOTAC graduates form the largest network of experts, trainers, and consultants in various fields.



Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
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Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).

Forget the open-air sleigh overloaded with gifts and powered by flying reindeer.
Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 military cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau, The Associated Press reported.
The visit was part of this year’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska National Guard to largely Indigenous communities in the nation’s largest state. Each year, the Guard picks a village that has suffered recent hardship — in Yakutat's case, a massive snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.
“This is one of the funnest things we get to do, and this is a proud moment for the National Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, said Wednesday.
Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit's dress regulations.
The Humvee caused a stir when it entered the school parking lot, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the cold air as dozens of elementary school children gathered outside.
In the school, Mrs. Claus read a Christmas story about the reindeer Dasher. The couple in red then sat for photos with nearly all of the 75 or so students and handed out new backpacks filled with gifts, books, snacks and school supplies donated by the Salvation Army. The school provided lunch, and a local restaurant provided the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.
Student Thomas Henry, 10, said while the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” his favorite item was a plastic dinosaur.
Another, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked around the school gym.
“I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experienced this before,” she said.
Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, at the top of Alaska’s panhandle. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent stop for cruise ships.
Some of the National Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday were also there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.
Operation Santa started in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence hunting for residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their money on food, they had little left for Christmas presents, so the military stepped in.
This year, visits were planned to two other communities hit by flooding. Santa’s visit to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off without a hitch. Severe weather prevented a visit to Crooked Creek, in the southwestern part of the state, but Christmas was saved when the gifts were delivered there Nov. 16.
“We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Army Alaska Division. “A lot of kids haven’t traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring the Christmas program on the road."
After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it quickly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, because there was nowhere to park it at the village's tiny airport. Later it returned to pick up the Christmas crew.
Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with their tuckered elves, were seen nodding off on the flight back.