Literacy - The gift that keeps on giving
Many Americans consider the time between Thanksgiving and the new year to be a season of giving. We find our mailboxes stuffed with reminders of those in need along with "free" address labels and a suggestion to support a cause. Similarly, during most any shopping escapade you are likely to experience the ringing bells of the Salvation Army. As a general rule, I am wary of donating money to causes for which I have no way to assess their accountability.
However, as someone with a language arts background and a love of reading, I have boxes of books from my last move. These are books that I've already read and probably won't read again. So, why am I keeping them? Well, I can't bring myself to through away a book, even a bad one. This year my wife and I have started looking for programs that can reuse these books to help the less fortunate. We got this idea after locating a local drop off program for books that are donated to prison libraries. I've listed and annotated some of the nationwide programs for book donations below. NCTE and its members have a wonderful history of donating books to the needy (most recently through our Tennessee affiliate at our annual convention and in the wake of hurricane Katrina). As you finish a book during the next few months, why not get a head start on a new year's resolution to increase literacy by donating your used books?
Here are some of the sites that I have seen. If you know of other donation ideas for used books, please leave a comment to this post so that we can all learn more about giving opportunities.
Books for Soldiers
http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/
Donate any type of media to any deployed soldier, airman, sailor, Marine, or Coast Guardsman who has an APO or FPO address.
Books Behind Bars
http://www.prisonpenpals.net/booksbehindbars.html
Help prisoners develop a lifetime habit of reading.
BookCrossing.com
http://www.bookcrossing.com/
Just leave a book somewhere in a public spot (an airport, train station, etc.) for someone else to pick up. You can even check the book's history on BookCrossing's website. See where it has been.
1 comment:
Great idea to collect these links. I know we all have at least a few books to donate.
If you want to give low-income families and children the chance to own their first books, FirstBook.org is a good place to start. For every $1 that is donated, they are able to purchase $10 worth of books from their corporate and non-profit publishing partners.
http://www.firstbook.org
Post a Comment