I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I feel so lucky to be part of such a passionate and amazing team of people.  Spending these weeks together visiting Room to Read projects was as reaffirming and incredible as I could ever imagine.  You’re a great and talented bunch and I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to learn from each of you!

My fantastic student leader at the University of Nebraska-Omaha has taken on a great challenge- collecting books all around this widely spread-out and very commuter-heavy campus and is getting all cylinders clicking!  He has big ambitions and the will, motivation and dedication to make it happen!

See the article he had written up about the book drive in the UNO student paper, the Gateway, “Honors student makes charitable use of unreturnable textbooks.”

Here is a letter from the amazing Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Century College in White Bear Lake, MN.  They have run two great book drives which has helped them have tremendous success at their regional meetings!  Congrats Nate and the whole Alpha Alpha Gamma chapter!

Niko,

Thank you for everything! We truly enjoy working with you…We’re looking forward to doing another collection at the end of the semester. Keep in touch.

By the way, our chapter won 4-1st place Regional Awards at our last conference. I took home a Distinguished Officer Award of our region (of 60 chapters). We also took home Distinguished Chapter of our region. We basically left with all 1st place Regional Awards. Our partnership with you was a big help in winning our awards — thank you!!

Nate Kruckeberg

The fantastic Western Wisconsin Technical College Phi Theta Kappa chapter (Beta Nu Chi!) joined the Better World Books team to run a book drive in support of Room to Read in the Spring of 2006.  The drive went well and they collected 24 cartons of books.  But they had just begun.  By coordinating with other college bookstores in the La Crosse area, the group was able to nearly double their Spring 06 output in this Fall drive (the Fall semester is usually trumped by the Spring semester 2 to 1!), collecting an astounding 47 cartons!  BWB Fall semester drives ended last week on February 15^th and the group notified me they had collected an additional 26 cartons of books- a great start for the Spring semester!

Headed by advisor Linda Duffy, the amazing students of the Beta Nu Chi chapter are going to use their Fall scholarship check to help offset their traveling expenses to the April International Phi Theta Kappa convention; this year being held in Nashville, TN.

Great work Beta Nu Chi!

The Beta Nu Chi Chapter

Fall has hit full tilt here in Minnesota which made the trip to Breezy Point Resort in Pequot Lakes, MN for the Fall MinWiKota regional Phi Theta Kappa Conference that much more beautiful.

With 20 chapters from the region attending, I had a great audience, a number of whom had already participated in the great Spring semester drives. One of the all-star chapters, Century College in White Bear Lake, MN, worked with me to have their president, Nate Kruckeberg, talk about their fantastic Spring drive. To date, they’ve collected over 2,000 books!

I was presented with a beautiful Phi Theta Kappa pen after the presentation and got to speak with Brandi McNeil from Phi Theta Kappa Headquarters about the organization and our fantastic partnership. The presentation following mine was given by MinWiKota members on Operation: Green, showing Phi Theta Kappa’s continued great service work and ability to attack current issues like preserving the environment. One key part to the Operation: Green project is a planting of trees around the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Dakotas region; they even handed out saplings to everyone present (I’m going to plant mine in the yard of my first house). It reminded me of how well our organizations fit together: the environmental impact Better World Books has had by saving more than 5,000,000 pounds of paper from the landfills .

To cap off the day, MinWiKota members didn’t stop at signing up to run book drives with Better World Books this Fall: a challenge was made for a student to jump into nearby Pelican Lake for a $20 donation to be made to Books for Africa. The contributions topped $20 and soon enough, there was a soaking wet MinWiKota Phi Theta Kappa member (names are being withheld for the protection of one very cold, wet but dedicated member). It was great to learn more about Phi Theta Kappa and the work they’re doing with and without Better World Books!