Books are the engines of learning. That’s the belief of Te Puke Paper Plus owner Stuart Gunn, who has come up with a way of helping those less fortunate to have access to the written word.

Anyone buying a book – or anything else for that matter – at his store will get it discounted if they donate it to a collection that will go to The Hub Te Puke.

“People select a book, it can be a cheap one, or whatever, and we give them a 25% discount, so that’s our profit gone, and then they put it in the [donation] box,” said Gunn.

Those donating will also go into a draw for a prize worth $150, he said. Primarily, Gunn is wanting people to select children’s books to be given as Christmas gifts.

The donation box in the store. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

The Hub Te Puke general manager Scott Nicholson welcomed the initiative. “It enables us to provide gifts for families to go out with our Christmas parcels,” Nicholson said.

“We often struggle in terms of gifts and things, so this is a great initiative in terms of just adding to that whole thing. Books are something that keep on giving, you can come back to them again and again.”

Nicholson said the prediction was there would be about 190 packages going to needy families during the week before Christmas.

He said those families were likely to be ones for which money was tight and buying books was not high on the list of priorities.

Gunn said his love of books was what motivated him to look at a way to try to get more of them into homes.

He also said he feels there is a need to have a way to help the community. “We put it on Facebook one afternoon and the following morning, a lady came in asking: ‘How do I do this?’ “We explained and she said: ‘That’s great’, so people are looking for this and we are giving them a vehicle to do it.”

The final day to make a donation is December 10. Gunn said he hoped the initiative would grow in future years and that other businesses may do something similar.