Bisham Abbey take part in national book drive

The centre, which is managed by Serco Leisure on behalf of Sport England, has announced a link up with the charity the Children’s Book Project on the Great British Book Drive.

The drive will see books collected at the centre 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 Bisham Abbey team are asking local people with good quality books, for children under 12, to drop them off at the centre, where they’ll find a dedicated ‘book bin’.

The drive launched on May 23 and will run until June 10.

James Ewart, Serco Leisure’s contract manager for Sport England sites 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 said: “We are over the moon to be supported by the team at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre.

“Every book donated by families will be gifted by our volunteers to children with few of their own.

“We’re so looking forward to sharing with the children who donate the very real impact their books have had.”

The Children’s Book Project was registered as a charity in 2019.

It won the Queen’s Award for Volunteering in 2020 and to date has donated over 600,000 books across the UK.

For more information about Bisham Abbey, please visit its website: https://www.bishamabbeynsc.co.uk/