Published: 26 January 2012
by GEORGIA GRAHAM

TEENAGERS are the next target for Primrose Hill fundraisers in their bid to save Chalk Farm library.

The campaign, spearheaded by the Friends of Chalk Farm library and the Primrose Hill Community Association, has astonished many by raising upwards of £350,000 in just over a month.

But campaigners need a further £800,000 to secure the library’s future.

Now, as well as raising money, they are getting youngsters involved through a go-karting trip.

Tickets for the event, on February 5 in Letchworth, are already being subsidised by Teamworks Karting and John Shepherd of Shepherd’s Food, while businesses such as Lemonia, The Queen’s Pub and Ready Steady Go will also be sponsoring at least 15 tickets for schoolchildren to take part for free.

They will be won by five Year 6 pupils who produce the best essays titled: “Why I think we need local libraries.”

Event organiser Philippa Jackson said it was an opportunity to bring a lost generation back to the library.

She added: “I was at Primrose Hill through the late 1970s to early 1980s and we were all taken weekly to the library and issued with cards.

“When they stopped doing that I think it was one of the nails in the coffin for the library – older children just stopped being connected to it.

Of course, the campaign is about raising money to save the library, but it is also about bringing it back into use.

“It is the teenagers, and the older children, that are missing out on the library.”

For more information call 07980 308766 or search for “Save Chalk Farm Library” on Facebook.

• Pictured above: Go-karting day organiser Philippa Jackson is helped with promoting the event by Primrose Hill Primary School pupils and assistant headteacher Liz Ghamar