To nominate an Unsung Hero for their community service and for terms and conditions go to: www.unsungheroes.org.nz
Combing op shops for books is a common enough pastime, but for Nova Gibson it's a mission.
The librarian at Summerland Primary School in Henderson spends her free time driving around looking for suitable books to stock the library at Robertson Road School in Mangere.
The connection started when Robertson Road's librarian, Kimberley Atkinson, bought some books from Mrs Gibson on Trade Me.
The decile one school had no money to stock its library so Mrs Gibson knew she had just found a new project.
"Because it was a purpose-built library, I knew the books would be used and promoted, so it seemed to be a good cause. And Summerland is decile seven, so it doesn't need the help," she says.
She has sourced and donated hundreds of books to the Robertson Road library since the start of the school year.
Last week she turned up with yet more boxes of books, and plastic to cover them - all at no cost to the school.
She sorts the books, sells any valuable ones on Trade Me and uses the money to buy more books and pay for petrol. Books from friends and acquaintances - anyone who knows of Mrs Gibson's work - help swell the numbers.
Her brother, Barry Steenhuis, works for a trucking company, and helps out getting the boxes of books to the school.
When Mrs Gibson decided that friends needed some help setting up a school library in Bangladesh, Mr Steenhuis stored the tens of thousands of books until they could be shipped.
Ms Atkinson is overwhelmed by Mrs Gibson's help.
"What she is doing is absolutely incredible and beyond the school's wildest dreams. Students will benefit for years from her generous nature."
Mrs Gibson said because she was a librarian, she understood the correlation between reading and learning. "And I'm a reader - I've got four books on the go at the moment."
Now that it is school holidays, Mrs Gibson and friend Vicki Beavis can spend more time looking for books. "Any open op shop is fair game."
The Unsung Community Heroes series is run annually in the The Herald and on nzherald.co.nz in partnership with P&O Cruises. We invited nominations from readers to recognise people who selflessly work to make a difference in their local communities.
Some will be selected to feature in the paper and on nzherald.co.nz. Five will be chosen to join a P&O winter cruise.
