Basingstoke ObserverBASINGSTOKE and Deane Community Leisure Trust (BDCLT), the operator of three leisure facilities in the town, has announced a link up with national charity the Children’s Book Project, which will see books collected via the trust’s centres distributed to underprivileged children across the UK.
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.
The trust team are asking local people with good quality children’s books to drop them off at its facilities: Basingstoke Aquadrome, Tadley Health and Fitness Centre, and Basingstoke Golf Centre. Each centre will have a dedicated ‘book bin’ for customers to use.
Hazel Tilbury, Chair of the Trust 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 from 23rd May to 10th June 2022, 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 Basingstoke and Deane Community Leisure Trust, whose centres provide 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.”
