The Bookery team will be able to build their 100th library a little earlier after Capetonians and book lovers rallied together to help the Cape Town Silent Book Club reach its goal of raising R100,000.

Cape Town Silent Book Club organiser, Shawn Buck, said he is blown they were able to achieve it.

The funds will help create and support a school library for 862 children at Montana Primary School in Kalksteenfontein, near the Cape Town Airport.

With the help of 156 donations, they had initially only been able to accomplish half of the goal, but Buck stated that the Sygnia Asset Management employee book club helped them raise the remaining amount.

“We originally set out to raise R100,000, an audacious goal for our first-ever fundraiser, to cover the gap in funding for the 100th library. We ended up with 156 people donating R53,650, an incredible amount. As the campaign ended, we were so ecstatic about the way it went.

“I was proud that we’d raised that much, and The Bookery was so thankful.”

He said the employee book club saw their fundraiser because of how many people shared and reposted it, and then surprised them by donating the remaining R46,350 to help them reach R100,000.

Buck stated that when he first approached The Bookery, he told them this was an experiment and really didn’t know if they could raise even any of the money.

“However, our community came around to it from the moment I had the idea.”

He said Leewin Chen, a Cape Town Silent Book Club regular and professional videographer, offered to make a video for the campaign, and partners like Waterfall Farms, Penguin Random House, UCOOK, T-shirt Bed Co., and Rosetta Coffee sponsored their giveaway.

They raised nearly R10,000 at a Silent Book Club gathering before even putting it on social media.

“The Bookery team and I were so ecstatic when we received the email (from the employee book club) about it. We went and spent some time with them at one of their book club meetings, and it was so lovely, and you can tell that literacy is a big passion of theirs.

“I’m so proud of the way people came together on this, and it inspires me about the difference we can make going forward. When you have a great group of people with a shared passion and a sense of community, you can really make a difference,” Buck said.

The Bookery’s spokesperson, Jacki Sands, said they did have the base funding for the 100th library covered, thanks to the donation from the MacFarlane Family Foundation, but that it did not cover all their needs for the library.

“The extra money that we got from Silent Book Club’s fundraiser is very welcome. We are so grateful to Sygnia Asset Management for coming alongside and filling in the rest of the balance that helped Shawn achieve his goal. That was absolutely amazing.

“We feel that is what true community is about, and that they understand what the bookery does, and believe in our cause. They believe that what we’re doing is impactful in the literacy landscape, which has us overjoyed that we have such fantastic partners.”

Sands said that they strongly believe in collaboration and that it is the partnerships which propel their work forward.

“They don’t only bring the funds, they also bring us access to other networks, skills and expertise that aid our vision and mission. We are extremely excited that somebody saw value in the work that we do.

“It gives us that extra boost we need to put that 100th library in place. Up to now, we’ve created 99 libraries and supported other library projects, so we’ve had a bit of time to look back, see what we have been doing historically, and then put better processes in place,” Sands said.

“It’s an exciting time for us, and we’re just grateful for everyone who believes in our work and supports it.”

The 100th library is set to be launched in early September.

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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