Pushing Books into Schools with Ablaze Bristol

9th Aug, 2021

As a Bristol business, we are committed to supporting our local community. We are proud to be a net carbon zero in operation business with 1% of our turnover donated to community and wellbeing projects. Many of our team members are STEM ambassadors and are passionate about supporting young people with the necessary skills for this exciting and growing sector.

We were delighted to support Ablaze Bristol, an independent charity tackling inequality of opportunities for young people in the West of England.

Our £1,000 donation enabled the charity to purchase and distribute books to it’s 20 partner schools, many of which are based in areas where literacy levels are below the national average.

Ablaze requested book recommendations from Max Minerva and Gloucester Road Books based on topics associated with struggles faced by children throughout the pandemic. The books were then purchased through the two independent bookshops.

Sam Taylor, Co-Founder of Max Minerva, commented: “We’re thrilled to be able to give back to our community in any way we can, and this was a fantastic opportunity to provide books to schools across Bristol through Ablaze. It’s great to support the charity in its quest to get kids reading.”

Tom Robinson, Owner of Gloucester Rd Books, added: “I’m absolutely delighted to be supporting Ablaze Bristol in its efforts to get more books into schools. Encouraging children to read and learn to love reading is incredibly important, and we are very lucky to have Ablaze doing the work it does in our city.”

Catherine Correia, Primary Project Manager at Ablaze Bristol, said: “We are so grateful to SDS for this kind donation. It’s been a fantastic way to re-engage with all our partner schools and bring some joy to the children. The response from the schools has been unanimously positive, with many teachers saying the titles are perfect to read and discuss in class, allowing children to talk about their mixed emotions and understand how we can still connect with one another despite being physically apart. Many school libraries were in need of some new books and we know many school libraries were in need of new books so we hope that teachers and pupils will be enjoying these for many years to come.”