DoSomething Day: Revesby Workers Club gets young and old reading through Book It Forward drive

MOST people would have heard of “pay it forward”, but one south west Sydney club has adapted the phenomenon to get kids and the elderly reading.

Revesby Workers Club has come up with a novel idea to get the elderly and young people with special needs reading. Pictured is Michelle Sammut from Revesby Workers Club and Kirsten Saisanas from Bankstown City Aged Care. Photo: Melvyn Knipe

MOST people would have heard of “pay it forward”, but one southwest Sydney club has adapted the phenomenon to get kids with special needs and the elderly reading.

Books have been flying onto the shelves at Revesby Workers Club’s Java Café since May for Book It Forward.

The campaign encouraged guests and staff to donate their well-thumbed reads before June 15, Do Something Day.

Those collected ranged from encyclopedias to fiction.

About 50 books are destined for the shelves of Padstow’s Caroline Chisholm special needs school and Bankstown City Aged Care.

The drive was part of Do Something Day.

At Revesby Workers today, Bankstown City Aged Care spokeswoman Kirsten Saisanas said residents would be thrilled with the haul.

“A lot of the books are a little older, some also new, but the ones that are older will be reminiscent of their past through the era the book is representative,” she said.

“They love them. A lot of the residents will have stacks of them in their rooms, which is great and they’ll just come out and change them as they please.

About 50 books were collected.

“We probably have about four book shelves which were donated full of books.”

Do something Day is Australia’s biggest ever celebration of random acts of kindness and volunteering.

For ideas what to do, click on our Kindomiser on the DoSomething! Day pageant generate a random act of kindness and commit to it and share it with us using the hashtags #dosomethingday and #giveyourbest!

Launched by NewsLocal newspapers, the DoSomething charity and Your Local Club and supported by the Pratt Foundation, the day is all about encouraging everyone to do something positive in their communities.