Leisure centre joins campaign to provide books for underprivileged children
Wyndley Leisure Centre has joined a campaign to help deliver books to underprivileged children across the UK.
The Sutton Coldfield venue has linked up with a national charity, the Children’s Book Project, in a move that will see books collected at the centre and distributed to children who need them.
Book ownership has been directly linked with improved mental health, while reading fluency itself has a significant impact on children’s successful progression through education.
The Children’s Book Project is looking to tackle ‘book poverty’, giving every child the opportunity to actually own their book.
Now, the Wyndley team are asking local people with good quality children’s books for the under 12s to drop them off at the centre, where they’ll find a dedicated ‘book bin’ for customers to use.
Once collected, these books will be distributed locally and nationally for children to enjoy.
Contract manager for the centre, Jack Pyatt, said: "We’re delighted to link up with the Children’s Book Project, helping them with their important work of providing books to children who may be currently missing out on this crucial element of a young person’s educational development.
“We will be hosting the book bins until June 10, so if you’re someone with unwanted, but good quality, children’s books in your home, please pop along to one of our centres and give the gift of reading.”
Kirstin Knell, from the Children’s Book Project, added: “We are over the moon to be supported by Wyndley Leisure Centre, a facility which provides such an important way for the local community to get together. Every book donated by families will be gifted on by our volunteers to children with few of their own. We’re so looking forward to seeing the results of everyone’s spring sort of their bookshelves and sharing the very real impact these books have had.”
