Belmont University: News from the Front

Posted by admin on 11.23.2007 at 1:42 pm

The following blog post is from Tim Stewart working with the Belmont (University) Volunteers for Literacy to run a drive:

For the past 2 years, Belmont Volunteers for Literacy, a student run group dedicated to improving literacy among children and adults in the Nashville community through educating students about the problem of illiteracy and involving students in literacy tutoring, has participated in the Better World Books Book Drive in order to assist in funding their annual Family Literacy Day.

Belmont’s Annual Family Literacy Day, which was begun in the spring of 2000, is designed to celebrate the joys of reading with children and their parents in our community. Serving as a culmination of the various ongoing tutoring and service projects that students are engaged in throughout the school year, the event involves more than 150 student volunteers and engages 200 – 300 children annually. Student groups organize “Reading Circles” with different themes. One fraternity, for example, dresses up like pirates and reads pirate stories. Nursing students have done health themes and read fun children’s books about the importance of taking care of our bodies.

In addition to the Reading Circles, we have reading related games and crafts and the children can get their faces painted like their favorite character in a book. Refreshments and door prizes round out the festivities and each child has the opportunity to choose a book or two to take home from a large collection of books donated by a local literacy organization.

Though additional funding is necessary to put on the event, the portion we receive from our Fall and Spring Book Drives provides a significant contribution to our efforts. We are pleased to be able to support literacy initiatives both globally and locally through our partnership with Better World Books.

Sincerely,
Tim Stewart

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, belmont university, book drive, campus

A Labor of Love

Posted by admin on 11.15.2007 at 12:54 pm

In the beginning of October one regional director learned that she would have to box approximately 2,000 books by herself. However, to her delight several LaSalle University students came to her rescue!

This is a very special thank you to Bell Tower Books for their donation and to the La Salle Cross Cultural Association for their tremendous work helping to pack these books.

Tons of drama taping.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, bell tower books, book drive, campus, lasalle, pennsylvania

Congratulations Phi Theta Kappa Florida!

Posted by admin on 11.12.2007 at 11:34 am

You collected the highest number of qualifying books of all the states in the USA (more than 818 cartons!) for the collegiate “Book Drives for Better Lives’ program!

Hooray!

AND

you have saved 25,282 pounds of books from the landfill which is equivalent to over 12 tons of books–all from Florida!

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!

Thank you to all the chapters in this, the Sunshine State that made this possible!! You are bringing light and hope to others through these book drives.  From my heart, I thank you for yours.

Florida from Space, courtesy of Wikipedia

1 Comment » | Tagged Uncategorized, book drive, campus, florida

Thank You AMSA!

Posted by admin on 11.05.2007 at 2:15 pm

In the last year members of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) have collected over 10,000 books to help spread global literacy. A majority of these books have gone to support Books for Africa and help end the book famine in Africa. Better World Books is incredibly thankful for these successful book drives and hope the new school year will bring twice as many books from the AMSA community.

I want to personally thank Michael Casey, a medical student and AMSA member. His hard work and passion for this partnership is instrumental to its success. Thanks to his tenacity and passion in just one years time one book drive has increased to 20 and 500 books have become 10,000! We are grateful to all the AMSA chapters that participated. I especially want to thank the top three collecting AMSA chapters from last Spring:

1. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo: Collected over 1,000 qualified books!
2. University of Florida: Collected over 950 qualified books!
3. Columbia University: Collected over 850 qualified books!

Thanks to all the books AMSA has collected Books for Africa can fund the shipment of 30,000 books to Africa, enough to fill 15 schools! We are truly thankful to work with such remarkable and passionate people. Thank you!!!

Have your say » | Tagged Our Partners, American Medical Student Association, AMSA, book drive, campus, Our Partners

News/Tips from the Front

Posted by admin on 10.24.2007 at 9:25 am

Hey all!  So, my Rocky Mountain expedition is nearly at a close (More adventures from New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado to come later) and I’ve picked up a couple of tips that I wanted to share:

Weber State University in Utah suggests using printable nametags to fill in the Who, What, When, section of your posters.  You can buy these at most any store that sells office supplies (and if you save the receipt your RD can make sure you are reimbursed).  They cut down on the time it takes to prep your posters and give them a professional look.

If you have a problem with folks tossing trash in your bins, UC-Denver and Metro State College recommend placing your collection bins next to garbage receptacles.  They’ve also found that taping the book slot down to the size of a large text book has helped to reduce the amount of garbage collected.

More to come soon and in the meantime, good luck with midterms, finals, and holiday travels!

Abby doing her best Ansel Adams in Utah

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, Better World Books in the field, book drive, campus, Colorado, Utah

Congratulations to Al Vos!

Posted by admin on 10.22.2007 at 7:35 am

Al Vos, a teacher at The State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, has been chosen to receive the “Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service”

The website suggests:
This award recognizes individuals whose long history of service to the campus, State University, local community or professional societies/organizations sets them apart as well as those who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in local or system-wide faculty governance.

You can read the full description of his excellent works, but you’ll notice that one reason he is receiving this award is of particular interest:

[Al] works with the Center for Learning and Teaching and the Institute for Student-Centered Learning. Vos, campus organizer and coordinator of the Books for Africa campaign, also contributes time and expertise to other community initiatives.

Congratulations, Al, you’ve always been a committed and excellent representative of Better World Books and Books for Africa, and this award is well deserved!

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, al vos, book drive, books for africa, campus, New York, SUNY

Guest Blog: SIFE at University of Memphis!

Posted by admin on 10.16.2007 at 9:20 am

The following is a guest blog from Meredith Broadhead at the University of Memphis with the SIFE organization:

I first found out about Better World Books book drives when I happened to order a book online from them.  With the book, I received a card of information regarding the opportunities to collect books for a good cause and raise funds for my student organization, Society of International Business Students at the University of Memphis.  Upon calling for more information, I found out how easy it was to run a book drive through Better World Books and was pleasantly surprised that there was no funding required on behalf of my organization.  I presented the idea to my group and they quickly approved our participation.  Being an international organization, we decided to go with the non-profit partner Books For Africa.The most success we have had so far results from the faculty support on our campus.  We made mini book collections out of empty copy paper boxes and decorated them with signs for BFA.  These boxes were strategically placed in the faculty mail rooms after receiving permission from department heads.  We asked the department secretary to send out an email to the corresponding faculty to promote our efforts and so they would know where they could leave their books.  This made it convenient for faculty members to donate their books and they have proven to be our greatest donors.  We would like to expand our reach to other departments on campus so that other faculty can have the opportunity to make a difference.

Our success also results from the participation of other independent text book stores off campus.  We simply called the managers, presented our cause, and they agreed to let us come and pick up books that they were retiring from the shelves from time to time.  When they had many books to be donated, we would easily arrange a time for them to be picked up.  It is beneficial for them as well since they can receive a tax write off for their donations, instead of selling books to wholesalers, which only creates more taxable revenue for them.  They have been another extremely important source of donations for our book drives and we look forward to maintaining our relationship with them.

The resulting funds from our participation are being donated to another student group to assist in their efforts working with the refugee community in Memphis, many of which are from the African continent.  They are supporting English as a Second Language, job skills training, and social adaptation programs.  Since they are just beginning their endeavor, they need some form of funding to operate initially.  We are pleased to donate these funds to this cause as it is supporting a fellow student group and also to come full circle by making a difference in Africa and in our own community.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, book drive, books for africa, campus, SIFE, Tennessee, University of Memphis

Tales from the Rockies

Posted by admin on 10.16.2007 at 7:30 am

My adventure began in Greeley, CO at the Phi Theta Kappa Colorado Region Conference.  Beforehand, Ron Fay, Phi Theta Kappa advisor at Aims Community College, and coordinator of the most successful Phi Theta Kappa drive in the Rocky Mountain Region (81 cartons this spring!) gave me a great tour of the campus.

The conference was great fun and inspired many new Phi Theta Kappa groups to get involved with Better World Books.  After talking to each other and hearing of how successful the Phi Theta Kappas at Pikes Peaks Community College (35 cartons!), Arapahoe Community College (37 cartons!), and Colorado Mountain College-Alpine (32 cartons!) and others were this year.  Thank you all for the opportunity to attend.

The trip to Colorado gave me the opportunity to visit many other great schools as well.

CU-Boulder had an amazing book drive this spring, coordinated by Alternative Breaks.  Brie, the drive coordinator, has handled the book drive for 3 semesters and brought in 105 cartons this spring promoting solely with e-mails and using only two collection bins!  This spring we are planning to get another student group involved and double the number of promotion methods and collection bins – Go Buffaloes!  Let’s see 210 cartons for literacy!

Golden Key and Mortar Board are planning to take the reins of a drive at CSU-Ft. Collins.  Not to play off of an old rivalry, but I think CSU could compete well with CU-Boulder’s spring book drive — they have an incredibly motivated group of coordinators and I’m excited to see how successful this drive can become.

I was also able to visit Front Range Community College–Larimer, where the Office of Student Life will begin coordinating numerous student groups on campus for a successful drive.  These groups will be responsible for varied aspects of the book drive and each will have the opportunity to table in the Student Center.  This should be a great way for the student groups to increase membership while supporting literacy!

Thank you, everyone, for the opportunity to visit!  I’ve had an awesome time meeting everyone and becoming more familiar with your campuses and experiencing the beauty of Colorado!

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, Better World Books in the field, book drive, bookstore, campus, Colorado, Phi Theta Kappa

Kudos La Salle

Posted by admin on 10.10.2007 at 5:05 am

Last week, I attended the World Cultures Fair at La Salle University in Philadelphia during which I was thoroughly impressed by the student coordinators commitment to sharing global perspectives and culture through food, dance and service.

One of the exhibits was a Books for Africa table at which we signed up volunteers and shared information about the success of the project.

The Cross Cultural Association headed by Elizabeth Moreno, Victor Decouto, and Chiara de Leon have run wildly successful book drives on behalf of Books for Africa for the past three semesters. Last year they collected a total of 2,908 books, raised $1,742 for student scholarships, saved 746 books from ending up in landfills and sent 329 books directly to Books for Africa .

Thank you so much for all your great work!

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, book drive, books for africa, campus, La Salle

Rave Reviews

Posted by admin on 08.29.2007 at 7:38 pm

This past year Villanova University’s Habitat for Humanity in conjunction with the Villanova bookstore collected the surplus books on their campus to support Books for Africa.

The word spread so completely on campus that Villanova staff later dropped off books at our collection center over the summer while in Indiana .

Read their impressions of Better World Books in action:

“I wanted to let you know that I did end up stopping by Better World Books on my way to Chicago . The organization is wonderful and they were very helpful taking my books and asked for the organization who informed me of them.  I would definitely encourage Villanova to use them for a book drive in the future – they were very efficient and organized.  I feel like it’s so cool seeing a place you donate to, up close and personal, so I am passing along these photos!”

“My club adviser for Habitat sent me pictures of your center in Indiana from a colleague of hers who also went to drop off boxes. She returned boasting about the large scale organization and incredible mission statement of Better World Books-and the pictures were really something to see. I was surprised at just how many books you had! I just wanted to send that back to you and let you know again how happy we are to be working with you and how everyone who learns more about BWB is only that much more impressed with it.”

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, book drive, book for africa, bookstore, campus, pennsylvania, villanova