|
By Shree Ann Mathavan
HE used to be Mr Free Textbook.
This lanky teenager spent three weeks every year for three years scouring through close to 5,000 musty textbooks, painstakingly sorting them for needy families.
For Pang Wei Pin, it's all in the spirit of volunteerism.
The first-year junior college student from Hwa Chong Institution, used to be one of the many hundreds of student volunteers who have helped out yearly at the NTUC FairPrice Used Textbooks Project, which is into its 26th year..
The project has helped more than 110,000students who come from families with an average monthly household income of less than $1,500.
The families - selected by various welfare organisations - will get first pick today .
The public can check out the selection next Tuesday. (See other report, right.)
The students' job entails going through lorry-loads of textbooks from 9am to 5pm almost every weekday.
Apart from sorting the books according to their educational levels, students also had to make sure the books were still relevant to the current syllabus.
Checks were also made to ensure badly torn and vandalised books were taken out of the pile and set aside for recycling.
This year, apart from Hwa Chong Institution, students from Montfort Secondary School, Anderson Secondary School and Dunman High volunteered their time.
'Not that tiring'
Wei Pin, who is not doing it this year because junior college levels are not involved, has fond memories of his three-year stint.
He said: 'It's not really all that tiring, as there are a few of us, so it's a bit like a chain production, everyone splits up the work.'
He also cheerfully pointed out that the work usually took up only about half his school holidays.
Apart from being book sorters, these volunteers will be on hand to help stressed-out parents who may be looking for certain titles.
On what that is like, Wei Pin recalled: 'Sometimes, parents can be a bit demanding, but we try out best to help them.
'When we manage to find the title, they are usually very grateful.'
Wei Pin said his involvement with the project opened his eyes.
He said: 'I was always aware of the income gap in Singapore.
'But the project helped to make me even more aware of how many needy people there are, how badly they needed these textbooks and I realised how fortunate I was.'
Despite the recession, it looks like Singaporeans are still giving generously.
Compared to last year's collection of 100,000textbooks, this year even more textbooks have been donated, surpassing the initial 120,000 target.
Mr Tan Kian Chew, Group CEO, NTUC FairPrice said: 'The community has responded strongly to our call to help needy students by donating used textbooks generously.
'It is this community spirit that has kept the NTUC FairPrice Used Textbooks Project running for more than a quarter of a century now.'
USED TEXTBOOKS FOR PUBLIC
NTUC FairPrice Used Textbooks Project
Textbook collection is open to the public next Tuesday from 9am to 5pm at these four collection points:
- Yio Chu Kang Seconday School
- Swiss Cottage Secondary School
- St Anthony's Canossian Seconday School
This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 6, 2008.
| 
