The Read & Recover Initiative was born through the thoughts and actions of some kind people with some kind hearts. The owner of White Now, Jenny White had experienced periods of time with her then 3 year old in hospital with recurring bouts of pneumonia over a 12 month period – an experience that can be teatering on life of death for a toddler. With this in mind along with the great experiences that Jenny and her family had with the medical teams, Jenny thought of ways to simply ‘give back’ to those who gave so much to her family to ensure that her 3 year old survived. She noticed that some of the books in the hospitals were a little tired and ‘well used’. WIth further research of other hospitals, she found that this was an all too familiar story. Jenny’s child is a lover of books and this kept him going through the many nights in hospital. If something can keep a sick kid happy – then this is a Godsend !
At Christmas time 2009, immediately after Jenny’s child was released from hospital for the 4th time in 6 months, a ‘friend’ on Facebook (a friend that Jenny had never met) posted that he would like to grant some Christmas wishes. That gentleman, Brad Sugars was a very successful businessman living in Las Vegas (an Aussie ex-pat). Jenny posted on his Facebook page that she would like to donate 100 books to 10 hospitals in Sydney. Soon after, Brad granted this wish but increased the donation to 1,600 books for 100 hospitals Australia wide. The kindness and generosity of Jenny and Brad lead to this amazing initiative. The inaugral year was 2010 with the initiative to be continued in years to come !
What a great story !