Chris Johnson, Better World Books’ organizer of the epic Great American Book Drive (which by now you know is the biggest community based book drive in the US) just dropped me a line about the recent event in Boston:

“The drive went very well, we collected about 13,000 books and everything went super smooth, and I’m itching to begin the national rollout.”

Nice!

Rather than me tell you how it went, considering I was over 2700+ miles away, I’ll let the Boston Herald do their job:

“Bay Staters paged through their book collections for donations to the annual Great American Book Drive, held yesterday at the Brighton-Allston Congregational Church UCC in Brighton.

“It was actually a good excuse to clean out my book shelves,” said donor Stewart Ulm, 27. “They were getting a little unwieldy.”

The Web developer donated about 150 tomes to Internet bookseller Better World Book’s annual drive. The donation ran the gamut from GRE study guides to novels to nonfiction chronicles. He gave nearly as many last year.

The drive from Better World Books collected tomes to sell and raise money for the Prison Book Program and City Mission Society of Boston.

Last year’s effort brought in more than 20,000 books. Since 2003, the for-profit Better World Books has raised more than $4.7 million for the nonprofit partners.”

The Great American Book Drive got off to a strong start in Brooklyn.  There was a band, a book sale, face painting, and, of course, lots of book donations.  Minus a few stitches in Dustin’s finger, the drive went off without a hitch.  By the end of the day, the library was already talking about a repeat performance in the spring – and given the number of people who asked when the next event would be, this seems like a great idea.

We received some good press in advance of the event – including mention in the New York Times and TimeOut New York.  And while a concerted push the past two weeks to promote the event resulted in a total of 15,000 – 20,000 books (many were recycled locally and 8 packed pallets are en route to the Green House), the next time around we will be able to considerably build upon this with sustained and concerted promotion.

Check out a few photos from the day.

Looking forward to sharing more details but I wanted to give you a quick update before the close of the weekend.

Finally, was great to have the help of my colleagues – thanks guys – and I’m looking forward to building off of our good start in Chicago and Boston.

Better World Books was there with the Prison Book Program deciding which books would be sold for funding or which would go directly to the prisoners, and after a grueling 10-7pm nonstop sorting and packing session we actually had to shut the doors of the church to make sure no one else showed up!

Thank you to UCC, PBP and all the volunteers who showed up for a great experience.  It’s not often enough that we actually get to go out there and get our hands dirty, and the opportunity was a great one.  Below are some photos, courtesy of the Boston Globe, Sunday edition (City & Region 10.21.07).

Partnering with the Washington DC VFW, the Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church, and SunTrust Mortgage Bank, we collected over 15,000 books!  Proceeds from the sale of those books will help First Book get books into the hands of children.

Our team (pictured) went through all of the books in just 3 days.  It was a lot of fun meeting our new partners and getting out of the office to sort some books!

You can still help support First Book by donating your books to generate funding for them.

Prison Book Program, a literacy partner of Better World Books, is organizing a city-wide book drive on Saturday October 20th.  Our goal is to collect at least 10,000 books.  Your book donations will be sent to prisoners around the country, sold at the City Mission used-book store, or distributed by Better World Books for the benefit of national and international literacy charities around the world. This is a great chance to clear out that bookshelf and ensure that your books go to good use.

If you live in the Boston area, please bring your unwanted book donations to benefit Prison Book Program, City Mission Society and other local non-profits. Hardcovers, paperbacks, used and new, fiction and non fiction.

WHEN:  Saturday October 20, 2007, 10am to 4pm
WHERE:   Brighton Allston Congregational Church UCC
404 Washington Street
Brighton , MA 02135

Full details are available at:  http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/bookdrive.htm
For more information, please email: info@prisonbookprogram.org or call 617-423-3298