What an extraordinary year we’ve all just experienced! In February the world was put on notice that Covid-19 was not just a fly-through-the-night virus that would disappear with some simple medical intervention. Rather, it became quickly apparent it had escalated into a full-blown pandemic that has undoubtedly changed the world as we know it. The global death toll has indeed been tragic. This year will be lodged in the history books as a critical turning point for humanity, and no individual or organisation has been immune (no pun intended) to its impact.

Books in Homes is no exception. Like many others, we needed to pivot and adapt. We did that by moving our regular Term 2 Program into our usually dormant Term 3. We introduced virtual Book Giving Assemblies into participating schools. We re-calibrated our operations to accommodate those changes and ensure future flexibility and adaptability. Term 3 was a great success, where we literally delivered Books in Homes with many children still in lockdown in some States and Territories.

Book Giving Assemblies proved a challenge through the year, with regulations preventing large assemblies and in some cases visitors not being allowed into the schools. Thank you to all the schools for working with Books in Homes, their Sponsors and our Role Models in doing the best they could to provide a forum for the delivery of the books to the children.

Throughout 2020, Books in Homes never took our eyes off our mission and main goal, which was to provide books-of-choice to all the children on our Program.  So, let’s see how we did…

Books in Homes fulfilled 27,457 student orders and supplied 82,371 books-of-choice with the help of our book distribution partner Scholastic Australia. Our profound thanks to Scholastic. In addition, 13,584 books were supplied in Preview Packs that were integrated into school and centre libraries for all children to access. The schools also received 4,476 Caught Being Good books and certificates that are handed out in a discretionary way to reward children who have improved in their reading, attendance, citizenship, and more. That’s a total of 100,431 books distributed in 2020. And that’s in the Covid-19 year of 2020! Well done and thank you to everyone involved in Books in Homes.

This, of course, would not be made possible without the help of our incredible Sponsors, Donors, Role Models and Supporters who have kept the Program flourishing and helped us stay the course. Our Program works best with longevity and continuity and many of our Sponsors are committed to doing just that to the schools they support. We are unbelievingly grateful, as are the students!

Our private donors do not go unnoticed either, and we have seen a very generous flow of private donations as we approached Christmas and the festive season. It is heart-warming that we see our community think of others less fortunate at the time we turn to celebrate the festive season with our family and friends.

It’s now time to sit back, take a long deep breath, and enjoy your Christmas break and to prepare for what we hope is a fantastic pandemic-free 2021.

A big thank you from all of us at Books in Homes.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Enjoy your holidays!