International Conference

Posted by Mary on 04.18.2007 at 12:56 pm

We just heard Al Gore speak on the environmental and that it’s a moral issue/decision for each and every one of us and David Murphy, CEO of BWB, talking about the incredible strides we have made since our inception and in particular the tremendous impact that Phi Theta Kappa has made for the Book Drives for Better Lives Program from an environmental and social standpoint!!

Mary Murphy, Southeast Regional Director of Better World Books and Erica Chong from Guam, together at the Phi Theta Kappa International conference in Nashville, TN!

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, Al Gore, conferences, david murphy, mary murphy, Phi Theta Kappa

Book Drive by Coastal Carolina Community College Phi Theta Kappa

Posted by Mary on 02.28.2007 at 4:56 pm

The Better World Books project was an idea that arose in March 2006 at the Phi Theta Kappa Carolinas Regional Convention in Clemmons, North Carolina. Mary Murphy spoke on the benefits of this wonderful program, and our chapter’s officers knew immediately that this would be a project that each and every one of us would want to participate in. Once permission was granted by our college campus’s administration, we advertised the event on campus with posters, flyers, and emails to both our chapter’s members and the college’s faculty. The College Bookstore, our on-campus textbook retailer, helped promote the event by instructing students to bring any unwanted textbooks or textbooks with no resale value to our office. We offered a book pickup to any faculty member that wished to collect books in their office from students, and we set up a donation box outside of the Phi Theta Kappa office in our Student Services building. We kept these services available not only throughout book buyback days, but all throughout each semester. Beginning in May 2006 and continuing on through today, our chapter has made this event a resounding success, collecting 81 cartons of books for Better World Books. We feel that it has been an incredibly successful event, due not only to the advertisement on campus, but the passion driving each participant. Everyone involved with this project did so out of the desire for keeping our local landfill free of textbooks, and by empowering the next generation through our literacy partner, Room To Read. We look forward to participating in this project for years to come.

Callasandra Michaels
Vice President of Records
Alpha Tau Rho chapter, Phi Theta Kappa
Coastal Carolina Community College

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Literacy: Kofi Annan

Posted by Mary on 09.29.2006 at 12:27 pm

Recently, I was on the United Nations Website as I know that the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has long been a strong supporter of literacy to combat poverty worldwide.

I was surprised to find in his Executive Summary of the Millenium Report: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century, an alarming chapter on the environment.

In addition to freedom from want and from fear, Mr. Annan writes, the world now faces an urgent need to realize a third freedom, which the UN’s founders could not have anticipated: “the freedom of future generations to sustain their lives on this planet”.  He continues, “We have been plundering our children’s heritage to pay for environmentally unsustainable practices in the present.”

Environmental sustainability is everybody’s challenge.  I am very proud of the fact that Better World Books philosophy is congruent with Kofi Annan’s plea to protect the health of our planet.  We have saved more than 1,200 tons  (over 5 million pounds) of books from the landfill….and we have never thrown one book away.

We couldn’t have achieved this without our student organizations taking the lead on campus.  It’s amazing to think that at a University with an undergraduate enrollment of 5,000 students…and each student has, on average, 5 college books with an ISBN # in a given semester…..there are 25,000 books that could be used to help others.  Donating a textbook is such a simple, yet powerful way to make a difference!

Have your say » | Tagged Dispatches from the Green House, Uncategorized, Kofi Annan, literacy, united nations