Free Books for Margate Schools
Donation protected
HELP GET MORE BOOKS INTO MARGATE SCHOOLS
The Margate Bookshop is raising money to buy books for our local primary schools. Here in Thanet, we have the lowest children’s literacy rate and the highest child poverty rate in all of Kent. An increasing number of local schoolchildren rely on free school meals and many pupils don’t have English as a first language.
When I set up The Margate Bookshop, I knew that one of my main goals would be to encourage a larger involvement in reading and in literature and recreate the feeling I found time and time again browsing bookshelves. It was at school that I was first drawn to books - not so much my parents but my primary school teachers who instilled a love of reading in me. Whether or not they were meant for us to pick up, the books I read in my childhood shaped my identity and my friendships for years to come.
The idea to help get books to children from disadvantaged backgrounds came from a customer who donated some money to The Margate Bookshop last Christmas, intending it to be made available to families on a low income. Then, one of our local primaries got in touch and I began to look into the options that are available to schools to acquire books, which I came to realise are relatively limited.
With this in mind, The Margate Bookshop has set up a fundraiser, reaching out to our customer base and to a wider audience in Thanet, to collect money to purchase children’s books we can then donate to local schools. Using our trade discount, we’ll be able to “top up” the donations that come in: this means that for every £100 donated, we will be able to provide children with up to £150 worth of books. Every penny donated* will go directly to buying books for local schools.
Suspended books. Inspired by the “suspended coffee” movement in Italy, whereby a customer in a café can choose to pay for an extra coffee so that someone who cannot afford one can claim it, we’re inviting our customers buying a children’s book (most of which are £6.99) to round their purchase up to a tenner, meaning that, roughly, with every one of their book purchases they’ll also be donating a book to a child in need.
We’ve set our target at £5000, which equates to about 1000 books. Our fundraiser however will be ongoing. There are beautiful and inspiring new books being published constantly and we feel all children should be able to delight in discovering them and get excited about the-next-book-in-the-series.
The Margate Bookshop will be working in close contact with Drapers Mills Primary Academy, Northdown Primary School and Cliftonville Primary School - the largest in Margate, which looks after 820 pupils, a large proportion of whom come from disadvantaged families. We will however also be working with other primary schools in the area (so far on our list: Garlinge, Holy Trinity & St. John's, St. Anthony’s, St. Crispins, St. Gregory’s and St. Saviours).
*bar the commission that Gofundme takes
Sources:
The Margate Bookshop
2 Market Place
Margate CT9 1ER
www.themargatebookshop.com
Organizer
Francesca Wilkins
Organizer
England