13 Aug 2018 Community

Huddersfield’s Book Exchange comes up trumps for Kirkwood Hospice

The well-loved Book Exchange at Huddersfield’s Bus Station has raised over £15,000 since 2014 for Kirkwood Hospice.

Huddersfield’s busy Bus Station sees over 33,000 commuters passing through its doors each day.

The Book Exchange was an initiative set up in 2014 by Bus Station Manager, Helen Schofield, to encourage people to get into reading again, while raising money for Kirkwood Hospice.

Anedin Husarevic and Helen Schofield proud to have raised £15,270 for Kirkwood Hospice

 

Since 2014, the initiative has raised a whopping £15,270 in donations for the Dalton-based Hospice.

The exchange is located in the centre of the Bus Station, with two shelves packed full of books from classic novels, to old knitting titles and lots of children’s stories during school holiday time.

Passers-by can pick up a book of their choosing to read on their journey, or swap it with one of their own, while making a donation to Kirkwood Hospice by the donation box fixed upon the wall.

Helen Schofield said: “We came up with the idea of the Book Exchange about five years ago, and it’s going from strength to strength each year with people using it every day.

“We’re constantly re-stocking and we have DVDs as well as books and even unclaimed umbrellas. We also have someone that makes homemade Birthday cards and little crochet mats and leaves them on the shelves. It’s become so popular and the stock is never the same at the end of the day as when you started.

“We see ourselves as a community hub now rather than a bus station, so it all started from an idea to create a nice ambience in the station with the books, music and shops.

“We knew we wanted to raise money for Kirkwood Hospice, because it’s a local charity that I think everybody has been touched by in one way or another. People pass through our doors every day so the more people who know about it, the better!”

"We knew we wanted to raise money for Kirkwood Hospice, because it’s a local charity that I think everybody has been touched by in one way or another." Helen Schofield

Building on the strength of the initiative after a hugely successful first year, Kirkwood Hospice’s charity shop in Huddersfield centre decided to get on board.

Deputy Manager at the Huddersfield Shop, Anedin Husarevic, said: “The first year raised £1,000 and ever since then it’s just grown and grown.

“Since then, the Huddersfield shop have been involved by collecting the money and helping out with donations of books to keep the shelves well-stocked.

“We have a devoted shelf of books in our shop to get sent to the station, and even our own volunteer, Ann O’Malley, whose dedicated role is to bring the books from the shop up to the bus station in her car which is a huge help to us.”