Volunteers wanted for FairPrice’s Share-A-Textbook initiative
Having a sense of fulfilment is why Ms Karen Tan, 43, will be organising the FairPrice Share-A-Textbook Project for the 13th consecutive year.
"I am proud to have the privilege to help organise this project for the last 12 years and support FairPrice in our efforts to reach out to the community," said Ms Tan, a senior corporate communications manager at FairPrice.
The project is in its 38th year to help needy students and families who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Textbooks can be dropped off at 77 selected FairPrice stores including Warehouse Club, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, FairPrice Finest stores, and FairPrice Xpress outlets at Esso service stations by Nov 30.
FairPrice said it will work with social service organisations and community development councils to identify students in need of the textbooks, and they will be given priority to collect them before the public.
The public book collection runs from Dec 13 to 16 at Our Tampines Hub.
The community initiative has, over the years, collected, redistributed and recycled over 5.8 million textbooks.
Ms Tan recalled a year where she and a group of volunteers delivered a set of books to a family.
Said the mother of two: "We learnt about this family of six who could not attend the distribution drive as the mother had fallen ill and the father had to work that weekend."
After finding out which textbooks were required by the children, volunteers selected the books from various distribution centres and had them delivered to the family.
"It was a rewarding experience. Their smiles made all our work worthwhile," said Ms Tan.
FairPrice said volunteers are needed to help sort out the books to ensure that they are relevant.
MANAGE QUEUES
They will also be involved in managing queues, replenishing books and assisting with book search on-site.
Strict safety measures have been implemented to ensure the well-being of volunteers and members of the public.
Besides splitting into smaller teams to handle the sorting of textbooks, all volunteers are provided with care packs that have wet wipes, disposable gloves and hand sanitiser.
Interested individuals can contact fptextbook@fairprice.com.sg by Nov 25.
More information is available on fairprice.com.sg/wps/portal/fp/share-a-textbook/faq
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