5000 books and 240 footy boots is the number of units donated last year to Gap Youth & Community Centre in Alice Springs, from non-for-profit Books n Boots located in West Footscray.
All units came from book drives organised by West Footscray Primary School and Melbourne Grammar School.
Co-founder John Harding said the organisation was established to donate used books and boots, in response to the growing demand for books in First Nations rural and remote communities and schools.
“We have an AFL sports officer in the Northern Territory who asked us to give them as many boots as we can spare because there’s so many kids playing barefoot in the street,” he said.
“Last year, West Footscray Primary got in touch with us to get a book drive going, and within a matter of days they donated more than 1000 books to us.”
Teacher Tess Maddison is organising this year’s drive with her student-led group, in which they organise activities that all relate to First Nations people.
“We have 24 students in the group who are are all really excited for this year because of how positive it was last year,” she said.
“I don’t think we expected to get so many books, so we were just blown away by how many were donated from families.”
John said over the course of their eight years of operation, they have serviced nearly 50 Aboriginal communities around the country, and this year’s drive is all about the boots.
“Our aim is to establish a hub in every state, they would contact schools in their area and organise book drives to distribute to Aboriginal communities in each state.”
Jennifer Pittorino
