To be one of the most successful drives every semester takes a level of commitment and ingenuity that any book drive participant will tell you is extraordinary. In Ontario there is such a book drive, at the University of Guelph. It started with a grad student named Mark Sun deciding to lead a Books for Africa drive and continues with uber-rep Ana Perkovic these days. As Ana chooses a successor for next year, I thought I’d better use her as a resource for as long as I can. First, the numbers:
Fall ’05 – 149 cartons (3,427 books)*
Spring ’06 – 284 cartons (6,532)
Fall ’06 – 109 cartons (2,507)
Spring ’07 – 116 cartons (2,668)
*based on average of 23 books per carton
So how have they had such success? I’ve never heard Ana say she was doing something incredibly out of the ordinary, per se, but instead they just know how to use the resources provided to them in an effective manner. Between
- on a cold day (they get a few of those in Ontario) “Give a book get a hot chocolate,” to
- large banners created at the print shop to advertise in the student center to
- a heavy advertising campaign with articles such as this in the campus e-bulletin and getting the word out to both teachers and students to
- the much appreciated and helpful assistance of the wonderful folks at the University of Guelph bookstore to
- painting the cannon on campus (apparently you can paint a large cannon and as long as someone hangs out at it then no one can paint over it until you leave) to
- the very awesome idea of putting a sign on their backpacks that says “ASK ME ABOUT OUR BOOK DRIVE!” with the dates and locations on it to
- a thermometer showing how many books they collected with a goal to
- a donor appreciation day with a raffle to get people out to
- well you get the picture, they get what they need to do!
Here are some of the volunteers (including Ana) reppin’ BFA and Better World Books.
