Stage Spiders raised money for the ‘Give a Book’ charity on 4 March, in response to World Book Day on 5 March. World Book Day is dedicated to celebrating authors, illustrators, and books, whilst also encouraging children to read.

Stage Spiders, a student led voluntary group based at the University of Kent runs projects for children and young people across Canterbury. The students dressed up in fancy dress for the occasion and performed a 12 hour ‘read-a-thon’ from 10am-10pm around the University of Kent campus.

Photo by: Sarah Murphy

Photo by: Sarah Murphy

Stage Spiders first read outside Essentials until 5pm and then went to all of the bars on campus until 10pm. Before the event took place, Stage Spiders raised £302.50 online, and are currently calculating how much they have made in total. The donation page for this event is still active for another month and students may donate here.

Photo by: Sarah Murphy

Photo by: Ivana Blaskova

‘Give a Book’ is a UK registered charity, created in 2011, in memory of Simon Gray who loved to share his reading. The charity facilitates the gift of books to charities and other organisations.

Olivia Toulmin, a Stage Spider member, commented: “The Stage Spiders read-a-thon was probably one of the most fun, but exhausting experiences I have had at university so far. Everyone was going cross-eyed and had barely any voice left after 12 whole hours of reading aloud, but we were still smiling all the way through to the end. The laughter never really stopped all day and to make it better, it was all for a good cause. I’m very proud to be part of such a lovely group of people like Stage Spiders.”