By Christian Blue, Account Representative

A new program that Better World Books is offering to waste management and recycling centers is called the Better World Books ReUseFirst Program.  The idea is that there are plenty of books that still hold value and end up at our local recycling centers to be destroyed.  What we would like to do is use our new PreScreen feature to sort out which books can be “ReUsed” before they are sent off for recycling.  In the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle chain, this is a better solution for the environment, not to mention our company and our literacy initiatives. 

Feedback among the waste management community tells us that there is a great deal of excitement about this new program offering.  Most waste management centers have a longstanding commitment to the environment and appreciate the opportunity to keep these books in the market as opposed to sending them off to be pulped.  While the ReUseFirst Program does require and extra step in sorting, the program is free and in many cases can return revenue for the materials we receive.

Send an email to library@betterworldbooks.com for more information.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

The latest order of the month (from the best month ever for www.betterworld.com!) comes from AP.  This kid is going to get educated well, but besides knowing his or her cats and hats, apparently they'll also know a fair bit about globalization issues (see bold)...

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, Elaine Bruner	19.48
The American Heritage Children's Dictionary by American Heritage Dictionaries	16.98
Human Body (DK Visual Dictionaries) by DK Publishing	18.98
My Two Hands, My Two Feet by Rick Walton	3.48
Science Projects About the Human Body (Science Projects (Enslow)) by Robert Gardner	3.48
Cells (Reading Essentials in Science) by Susan Glass	14.98
From Caterpillar to Butterfly (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1) by Deborah Heiligman	6.98
The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! (Everything Kids Series) by Tom Robinson	12.48
Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers by Bobby Lynn Maslen	13.98
Bob Books Set 2: Advancing Beginners by Bobby Lynn Maslen	15.98
Bob Books Set 3: Word Families by Bobby Lynn Maslen	13.98
Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping (I Can Read Book 2) by Peggy Parish	8.48
Oliver (I Can Read Books) by Syd Hoff	3.48
Green Eggs and Ham (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books) by Dr. Seuss	13.48
Arthur's Loose Tooth (I Can Read Books) by Lillian Hoban	9.48
Arthur's Prize Reader (I Can Read Books (Harper Hardcover)) by Lillian Hoban	3.48
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (Beginner Books) by Dr. Seuss	3.48
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books) by Dr. Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel	13.48
First Space Encyclopedia by DK Publishing	15.48
National Geographic Our World, Updated Edition: A Child's First Picture Atlas (Science Quest) by National Geographic Society	16.98
Science Projects About the Human Body (Science Projects (Enslow)) by Robert Gardner	3.48
Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development (3rd Edition) by Lester Rowntree, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, William Wyckoff	9.98
Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel	13.48
Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust by Editors of Time Magazine, Yad Vashem	15.48
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett	5.98
Don't Sweat The Small Stuff For Teens by Richard Carlson	3.48
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Classic Seuss) by Dr. Seuss	16.98
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.	12.48
Don't Sweat The Small Stuff For Teens by Richard Carlson	3.48

[ed. note: AP has informed me that these books will all be donated to a local charity for public schools (there are multiple copies of each book).  Kudos!  We love work for literacy!]

Posted by Aaron King, Director and Yanna Ogilvie, Senior Regional Director

Phi Theta Kappa Members Walk for Sudan

~

We all know that Phi Theta Kappa members are great, and we count on them to run some of our best Book Drives.  We were recently touched by a story of a group that is not only running a Better World Books book drive, but also reaching out to try to help coordinate something amazing.

Many of us have heard the plight of the 27,000 “lost boys” of Sudan, their perilous 1,000 mile walk  left more than half dead, and the rest came home to a country devastated by war, bare of essentials like clean water and schools. Matt Hoffman, a Phi Theta Kappa member at Illinois Central College, was touched by these horrific stories and moved to immediate action. Matt reflects, “A good friend of mine, Sean Fahey from Endless Eye informed me that his 501C3 had committed to raising funds to shoot a documentary film to raise awareness about the situation in Southern Sudan.”

Sean’s organization has been working with Justin Machien Luoi (www.pacodes.org), a Lost Boy, to build a library, a school, and provide clean water for Panyijiar County, Southern Sudan.  Matt wanted to know how Upsilon Mu, Illinois Central College's Phi Theta Kappa chapter, could get involved.  They talked for a few hours that night and decided to design a "walk event" in Peoria, Illinois. That is how Walk Sudan was born.

Walk Sudan is a project intended to raise awareness and funds to build a library in Panyijiar County, Southern Sudan, a region that has been devastated by 20 years of civil war and ethnic conflict.

Matt is reaching out to Phi Theta Kappa members to help with this great cause, “I’ve been fortunate to witness the generosity, passion, and perseverance exhibited by Phi Theta Kappans and I know that, with a little effort, we can help rebuild Southern Sudan and become part of something bigger than ourselves!”

In addition to helping coordinate the walk, Matt and his chapter are going to run their campus Better World Books book drive as usual; only this time, they are going to take the funding they earn from this book drive and graciously give it to the Sudan Project!

Better World Books and Books for Africa have begun working on a partnership with Walk Sudan to help pay for the shipping of books to Sudan. Pat Plonski, Director Books for Africa, comments "The need for books in Sudan is enormous because of the difficulty involved in shipping to that country.  The roads are very bad, and going to Southern Sudan represents a shipment almost to the very heart of Africa, which greatly increases the costs and logistical hurdles involved. For these reasons, we really appreciate the opportunity to work with partners like these who are willing to go the extra mile and get these books where they are so desperately needed."
Better World Books will be using money from the newly created BWB fund in addition to money generated by Walk Sudan to help cover the cost of shipping. If you are interested in helping Walk Sudan reach their goal of building and stocking a library in Southern Sudan please contact Matt Hoffman (mhoffman23@mchsi.com).

Links to more information:
http://revver.com/video/698354/walk-sudan/ - our video (produced by Endless Eye)
http://pacodes.org/
www.endlesseye.org
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1177134747 - our Facebook
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/12/10/news/state/144197.txt - some press re: Justin's efforts

Posted by David Murphy, CEO

Hello everyone.  Take a look at the attached .pdf from Books for Africa. 

Sullivan Summit.pdf (911.48 KB) 

This flyer was sent to all 500+ delegates attending the "Sullivan Summit" in Arusha, Tanzania.  Note that Better World Books, through the Better World Books Fund within Books For Africa, is sponsoring the shipment and that the books will be distributed by the Poverty Eradication Network (PEN) in Tanzania. Natasha Harris, Niko Tomlinson, Mary Murphy, Jaime Knabet, Dustin Holland and myself visited the PEN folks in the summer of 2006 and have continued to stay in touch with them (Mungwe and Andrea).  They do fantastic work (based in Dodoma, the national capital of Tanzania) throughout the country.

To find out more about the Sullivan Summit VIII, go to www.thesullivanfoundation.org/summit/.

Posted by David Murphy, President and CEO

Make sure to read the March 21st article in the New York Times written by David Brooks, entitled "Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders".  This is an excellent article on Social Entrepreneurship and there are many points from the article that connect directly with what we have built here at Better World Books.

Maura Varian, Acquisitions Support Manager, hatched a brilliant plan earlier this year. One day, she thought, "Hey, we collect books. We sell books. And, most of us even read books. So, why don't we help people learn to do what we love most?" And, today, that plan is a step closer to fruition.

As of last week, 11 Better World Books employees have graduated from our local literacy council's tutor training program. The employee-tutors will be utilizing the company's new volunteerism benefit for this program. In essence, they'll be compensated for their time as if they were working away in our distribution center. For Better World Books, providing direct service -- be it tutoring, painting houses, or playing with children with disabilities -- is just as valuable as receiving, scanning, and shipping books. In the end, it's all about creating a Better World.

And, Maura's not done there. In an article which was released today by the South Bend Tribune, she is ready to take her dream of local literacy even further, saying I'd "like to see the partnership grow to eventually allow the company's own employees who have issues with literacy to get the help they need from the Literacy Council while they're on the job."

Thanks, Maura, we're right there with you!

For the full article, click here.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist


(the author of this great article, Amanda Brouillette)

Over at the Red and Black, the student newspaper of the University of Georgia wrote an article that simultaneously talks about how sweet we are:

Better World Books has given more than 864,600 books directly to Books for Africa, as well as the National Center for Family Literacy, which helps here in the United States.  They've also raised $900,000 of unrestricted funding for Books for Africa, www.booksforafrica.org, since May of 2002.

A warehouse full of books at the Books for Africa headquarters in Minnesota is useless without the incredible amount of funding necessary to ship the books all the way to Sudan, Darfur or Ethiopia. This unrestricted funding ships the books across the Atlantic, and ensures their transportation inland to different countries and villages.

It's hard to comprehend being forced to share my only book with six other students, but Fresew said that is the case, even in Africa's private schools.

while talking about what the local Bulldogs can do to help:

As you finish your finals, get closure on that ridiculously hard class - take a walk to one of the bright green boxes that says, "Book Drives for Better Lives," and let the bane of your semester save someone else's life. I promise you, it's worth it.

Check out the full article here.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Check out this month's edition of our recurring feature, Worldfund's Student of the Month.  Worldfund is our Latin American non-profit literacy partner and we look to support them in any way we can as they support youths such as:




Dina!

Six-year-old Dina is a kindergarten student at Worldfund’s partner school in El Salvador, Mano Amiga San Antonio . A confident and friendly girl, Dina works hard in school and helps with chores at home.

Sadly, she already has experienced myriad hardships, including a life of poverty, abandonment by her father, and the death of her mother. Dina and her younger brother Oscar live with their elderly grandmother, Adela. Until recently, they lived in a house that was constructed with sticks and scrap materials and located in a community made up of small islands surrounded by raw sewage and trash.

In 2006, the school’s Director arranged for Dina to attend Mano Amiga San Antonio. Dina’s enrollment marked a turning point in the lives of everyone in her family. Dina’s brother Oscar is now a student at the school, and the Director facilitated the family’s move into a house in CIDECO (Centro Integral de Desarrollo Comunitario), a special community affiliated with the school that provides housing, medical care and access to literacy, hygiene and other classes that help families live with dignity and transition out of poverty. Adela, Dina and Oscar have benefited from the activities and classes, learning to eat with plates and utensils, and learning about personal hygiene, among other things.

The scholarship that Dina receives enables her to receive a high-quality education and she takes advantage of all that the school has to offer. Since Dina enrolled in the school, her attitude has improved significantly. She especially enjoys attending her pre-mathematics class and playing soccer with her friends.

The stark contrast between Dina’s life before and after enrolling in the school demonstrates the transformative effect that generous donations and high-quality education have on impoverished children’s lives.

Post swiped from the NCFL's hot new blog, "Literacy Now."

The good times just keep rolling! Here are some of the conference highlights from Monday:

• 
  David Murphy of Better World Books helped open the general session with thoughts about how Better World Books are working to .merge commerce and philanthropy in a way that will make the world a better place. One simple way to do that…shop BetterWorld.com to buy books from a company that balances profit, planet, and people.
• Marie Bradby shared the background and inspiration for her book, More Than Anything Else.
• The NCFL photo booth wrapped up with almost 70 groups visiting and having their pictures made. Keep an eye out for your picture in your local paper!

And we were honored with some great coverage in the local newspaper in Louisville. Click here to see the online version of Monday’s article in the Courier-Journal.

Photo gallery and comment over at the original post

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Check out this month's edition of our recurring feature, Worldfund's Student of the Month.  Worldfund is our Latin American non-profit literacy partner and we look to support them in any way we can as they support youths such as:



Bruno!

Seventeen-year-old Bruno was born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, where he lives with his mother, a domestic worker, and his two younger sisters.

Bruno has always liked electronics and is working towards becoming an engineer. When he was 14, he was accepted into the Steve Biko Institute’s three-year, intensive after-school Oguntec Program, which prepares disadvantaged Afro-Brazilian students for the vestibular (university entrance exam). Last year, at age 16, Bruno took his first exam for admission to the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and passed the first phase for Electrical Engineering. Bruno graduated from high school in December 2007 and hopes to begin his university studies in 2008.

Bruno believes that his participation in the Oguntec Program was the best thing that ever happened to him. It was as a student in this program that he learned that the word “quit” is not part of his vocabulary. He also learned that for a young man from a poor neighborhood, completing high school is not enough. He needs to dream of attending university. Bruno’s goals include attending university, establishing a career, and changing the economic situation of his family.

As Bruno states, “Attending university will make me the first, the first child, the first grandson, the first nephew in one generation to believe in the DREAM. Afterwards, I would like to return the Steve Biko Institute and become a professor in the Oguntec Program which I believe should always continue. It was at the Institute that I learned to have a social commitment.”

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

I reported earlier about the Great American Word Challenge, a nationwide online contest that pit cities against one another to measure their greatness, not by the height of their skyscrapers, but by the depth of their vocabularies. Fresno received the highest cumulative average score and took the title and the prize: a Ubisoft donation of My Word Coach video games and Nintendo DS™ systems to a local family literacy center selected by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The beneficiary organization is the Fresno County Library Literacy Services Center, which provides free reading, writing, spelling, and math tutoring to Fresno County adults that cannot read or write English.

“The city of Fresno is always proud to support family literacy,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Eben. “We are excited to have won the 'Great American Word Challenge' and thank all Fresno's residents who participated so successfully in this fun and creative Challenge.”

With thousands of contestants putting their vocabulary skills to the test since November 1, 2007, the “Great American Word Challenge” proved which American cities could walk the walk AND talk the talk:

-- In addition to Fresno, the following cities rounded out the top four positions:

-- Salisbury, Maryland (2nd place)

-- Mankato, Minnesota (3rd place)

-- Albuquerque, New Mexico (4th place)

-- Oakland, California (5th place)

-- Overall, the U.S. received a B- average grade on their vocabulary with a national average score of 167 out of 205 (81%)

-- And here's how long-time city rivals stacked up:

-- Oakland is the smartest Bay Area city, beating out San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose!

-- Despite preliminary results showing Brooklyn in the lead, at final count Manhattan is the highest-scoring New York City borough. The Bronx is the lowest-scoring borough. Here's how the boroughs stacked up against each other:

1. Manhattan

2. Queens

3. Brooklyn

4. Staten Island

5. The Bronx

-- Twin Cities? Not exactly. Minneapolis established itself as the more literate of the two, scoring 168 compared to St. Paul's 140.

-- Good (and smart) things come in small packages: Pasadena might be just an eighth the size of its sprawling neighbor, Los Angeles, but it's 16% smarter! Pasadena scored 178 compared to Los Angeles, which scored a mere 154. Article from Business Wire

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

As the resident evangelist and blogger I take whatever opportunity I can to talk about the great things that we do here at Better World Books. Considering the amount of positive emails I get, this is a relatively easy task, however sometimes, it gets even easier. After the jump (click the "Read More" button below the post) check out these letters from the Republic of Guinea written to Books for Africa from schools and missions expressing their gratitude. Through our book donations and funding and support, Better World Books is proud to be a part of a group that creates impact at places like this:

-Amazonion Bilingual School
-International Community College, Guinea
-Kwane Nkruma High School, Guinea
-Nelson Mandela English Academy
-Mission U.E.P. Primary School, Guinea
-The Conakry Grammar School, Guinea
-Faith International School, Guinea
-International Refugee Committee School
-Princess Diana Memorial Refugee School
-Women of Jesus
-Conakry International School
-Sabu International School
-Trust International School
-Sierra International School
-Call of Hope Mission International

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

The Prison Book Program is a partner you may not hear that much about but it's an important one for us and one that Better World Books is truly proud to work with.  Whether it's us having organized the biggest book drive in Boston this fall (involving me and some co-workers spending two days locked in a Church sorting books) for their benefit or now more recently, shipping them 19 cartons (~23 books in each carton, ~440 total copies) of paperback dictionaries, we do whatever we can to help a most worth cause.

From Pam at PBP:

Thanks again for arranging to get those 19 cartons of paperback
dictionaries to Prison Book Program.  These will be an incredible help
to us -- approximately half of the requests from prisoners are for a
dictionary, and normally we have to purchase them in bulk.  This
shipment will keep us up to our ears in dictionaries for the
forseeable future!

As always, we value the partnership with Better World Books, and take
every opportunity to sing your praises from the rooftops!

Best regards,
Pam and the whole PBP gang

Here to help, Pam!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist


Liberia, courtesy of Justus

Over at Adventures in Liberia, Justus talks about an event that you might be interested in:

Today I witnessed a marvellous ceremony which took place at Aquilla School in Paynesville. Visions in Action is helping supply a million books to schools, libraries, and other areas to promot literacy. They are also training teachers how to use a library system so that the books are not just locked in a room as a valuable 'trophy' and not used by the kids! The children marched into the school joyously singing where there were speakers from USAID Liberia, Books for Africa, and Better World Books as well as members of the Liberian Ministry of Education. It was exciting to see all the smiling faces on the children. I met with the founder of Visions in Action who I am going to sit down with and talk about possibly volunteering with them as they continue to distribute the million books to the 15 counties around Liberia. I met Justin (on betterworld.com team) and Andy (CIO) from Better World Books which is an online book seller like amazon.com but they donate some of the proceeds to purchase books for children who need them. So if you are going to buy a book check them out at www.betterworld.com.

Thanks Justus!  Keep up the good fight!

Full post

Posted by Natasha Harris, Pacific Senior Director

(The following is a two part post, follow the link below for the rest of part two and part one is the post beneath this one)

I think back on my childhood and on the privileged path I’ve been on since the age of two. I’ve always been a reader – a passion that was heavily supported by my family and my teachers throughout my formative years. In all my life, I’ve never suffered for the lack of a good book to read. I’ve also been given plenty of recognition and offered numerous scholarships to help me achieve my dreams. I grew up in a country where I was taught that if I think big and believe in myself there is no threshold I cannot cross – no barrier to keep me from my dreams. How much of this have I taken for granted? How many classes have I skipped in my life because I had something “better” to do? I look back on myself and my classmates growing up and I realize that all of us – the richest of us, the poorest, the most clever and more challenged – we all approached our education with at least some degree of indifference, at least some of the time. And why not? Education was always a given, at least through high school. I remember whining about going back to school after a long vacation, wishing I could spend my days outside instead of being cooped up in a classroom with all of its rules and expectations. Cambodia put that all in perspective.

Posted by Sarah Lynne Reul, Senior East Coast Director

Another great update from Martha Schouten at the University of Oran in Algeria, recent recipient of a Better World Books-funded Books for Africa shipment. Check out previous posts here:
-University of Oran Receives BFA Books!,
-Better World Books Funds Shipment to the University of Oran in Algeria,
-University of Oran gets ready for books!,
-University of Oran update)



Dear Pat and Sarah Lynne,

Life goes by slowly here in Algeria and so do our books' preparations. The students worked all Christmas-El Kebir vacation then I went to Spain for a week to see my son and the Algerian librarian went to Paris for a week and now we are finally back to class. Most of 300 boxes have been listed for the rector and are about ready to circulate in the large library in the language department. The rector is determined to protect the books and to keep a diligent watch on them. Students will only be able to consult the titles of the books in order to check out from the large library. For the moment there is not enough security and the students and teachers are little accustomed to any other method.

My English club members are now working on our smaller walk-through library. If this goes well then the larger library will allow walk through too.  We have to make cards for each book we have selected and also put them into the computer. Our collection comes almost last then we will make a donation to the University of Mostaganam about 30 miles East from here along the coast. The teachers have come to see me and are overwhelmed at the variety of the generous gift you have made us. The medical literature has gone to the medical school already to my knowledge and the children's books to another children's library near the main campus of translation and law.

I am sending a few pictures of the library permanent crew and my students. We had a barbecue of merguez (grilled mutton sausage) and all the trimmings the first day we were back in class. We are on campus not too far from the library. I hope you both enjoy them.

Martha Schouten and English students
ELF Es-Senia
Oran Algeria

Posted by Deon Smith, Account Representative

Even as one of the newbies here with Better World Books, I realize the impact that our company has on literacy. Within the second week of my position here, a student from UGA (University of Georgia) visited our Alpharetta office to personally thank us for our contribution to Books for Africa.

A week later we received an email from a student in Algeria, expressing his gratitude for our service. The following week, I picked up an issue of Business Week: Small Biz and who’s on the cover? Xavier Helgesen… one of the co-founders of the company (read more in previous entry)! Way to go Xavier! Better World Books is amazing!!

Posted by Erin Fleming, guest blogger.

This is part of a series covering BWB Co-Founder Xavier's recent trip to Africa.

*November 12, 2007

Rain is soaking the red dirt roads and we are exhausted as we head to the fifth and final school of the day, Nomevu High School. We are running late because of a long presentation at Mafunda HS, but the students at Nomevu are waiting for us, even though many have quite a walk home ahead of them. Alone on a grassy hill, this school has just one building. There's only room for the 8th and 9th graders, so they'll have to drop out by 10th grade.

        
         Teachers greet us at Nomevu High School.

Thankfully, ECAG-USA, an non-profit building classrooms in this area and that organized our Africa trip (see their website or read the previous post), has placed this school as #1 on the waiting list for more classrooms, so that the students can graduate.

The process for a school to get new classrooms is that the school's home community puts up a $1000 payment per classroom, and then, through fundraising and donations, ECAG sponsors the additional $11,000. The classrooms have a standard design, so the materials are accountable to the last brick and can house around 50 students comfortably. They are built with electrical wiring, but adding power is an extra for the school to pay. What happens if ECAG doesn't build? That's it; no new classrooms. The kids don't graduate, or in some cases, have no school at all. Many students in this area still learn under a tree, but on a rainy day like this, it's a day off. Cool! say the American kids, but think of how often it can rain in a season here! And, no desks, no library.. hardly a good learning environment.

I have mentioned that all primary students are fed a meal each day at school. What we learned today is that the government doesn't sponsor high school students, so that means these kids at Nomevu had been waiting for us, without eating all day. Our hearts are breaking for these humble, appreciative students. Sorry this post might be a downer, but after we'd fallen in love with so many kids all day it was really hitting us, how hard life can be here. On the way here, on the radio, the newscaster announced that HIV/AIDS is the #1 killer of children in South Africa. How were these kids today so full of life?  I had to wonder if they thought our visit meant that we would be able to solve their problems, or if it was, you know, just a lot of fun.  I certainly had a wonderful day, but still I felt a bit guilty.

  
  The end of a long day, Nomevu HS.

Like at every school, the students had songs and dances ready for us, including  the native costumes for the girls. I don't feel comfortable posting video of the girls to BWB because they are topless, but I did think they were so beautiful. My favorite choral performance of the day, however, was this one:

Let it shine in Zululand video. (youtube)

The teachers provided a snack for us of sandwiches and chicken in the other classroom. Knowing the kids hadn't eaten, and since we'd had snacks all day, nobody made a move for the spread. Some of the ladies in our group whispered we had to take something to not be rude, so begrudgingly, we did. More guilt... Anyway, we unloaded the sandwiches and drinks we had in the vans. With that and all the leftovers from the snack, there was enough for a small meal for each student, and we felt better knowing they had eaten.

What a day! We are overwhelmed but ready to help these students graduate. If you've been following this blog, you remember that at the end of this day, after Nomevu HS, we went to visit the student Nomkhosi's family.



Xavier and Erin, bottom left, and the ECAG and Books for Africa group, enjoy the show.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, Northeast Regional Director


The now oft-photographed co-founder Xavier, caught
in his 5 minutes of sitting down time, on "the throne"

If you happen to be perusing CNET's News Blog today (or if you like following the myriad links that we post), you'll see a reference to a company you may recognize.  Hailed as "Eco-Alternative to Amazon funds literacy programs" Better World Books gets a pat on the back for all the hard work we do (which isn't why we do it, but it feels good sometimes). 

The article begins with a story you may have heard before:

F. Xavier Helgesen had big dreams to build Web sites after graduating from Notre Dame in 2001 with an MIS degree, but then the dot-com industry crashed.

 Instead he co-founded a company in 2002 that sells books otherwise destined for the landfill, sends some of the proceeds to literacy groups, and uses carbon-neutral shipping...

and goes on with the good news of what we're doing and how we're doing it, including our free shipping in the US, our flat rate $2.97 for international orders and how we use not just no-value books but use discarded, once landfill bound library shelving to store the books (680,000 lbs of library shelving, in fact).

Check out the full article.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, Northeast Regional Director


(Things are hoppin at OCC)

Onondaga's Student Newspaper, The Overview, has a blog, which mentions the latest Phi Theta Kappa induction. I'd talk more about it but I'll let the fine writers at OCC do the work:

Alpha Sigma Zeta, OCC’s local chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, inducted 85 new members on Oct 23, 2007. In a candlelight ceremony, members were honored for their academic achievements and service to their campus and community.

Kelly Insel, chapter secretary, had the honor of presenting checks to Elmwood Elementary School and Seymour Elementary School to purchase needed books and supplies.

*This money was earned through the Better World Books program in which members collected textbooks that were sent to Africa. For each book accepted into the program, the chapter was reimbursed money to be used in the local community.*

Debra Baehr, Elizabeth Bailey, Elaine Baker, Michael Balintfy, Andrew Borchik, Helene Brophy, Latoya Brown, Brittany Caprilozzi, Sarah Carlson, Karen Carnessali, Christa Carsten, Christina Catalfano, Melissa Ceresko, Jonah Cohen, Mert Coskan, Sean Cummings, David Currier, Amy Dederich, Caleb Defrees, Paul Dooley, Alexander Douglas, Emily Dwyer, Franciscalenae Egbuna, Christopher Ezomo, Justin Fabiny, Christine Finnemore, Megan Forman, Kimberly Germinio, Jacqueline Goletsas, Kevar Griffin, Shelby Hall-Lorenz, Peter Hawley, Machia Haynes, William Heuschneider, Lauren Jemola, Susan Johnson, Swaroop Joseph Varghese, Terea Killings, Jessica Kline, Melissa Krausnick, Craig Laduke, Katie Larock, Crystal Lauzau, Ashley LeClair, Debra Ledford-Prahl, Martha Lortie, Kimberly Lowe, Allison Masella, James McCampbell, Sarah McMichael, Jessica Milton, William Mitrus, Jason Myers, Timothy Olson, Kevin O'Toole, In Gi Park, Peter Paynter, Edward Perry, Nicholas Pikarsky, Kimmy Radell, Alison Randolph, Mike Robbins, Robert Rudeau, Dipendra Sah, Jacqueline Samora, Cadelyn Schmid, Alice Shaw, Denise Shuart, Josh Siddall, Deborah Silver, Thomas Sleeth, Staci Smith, Jill Stellmack, Sutida Sukkrasae, Andrew Swan, Margaret Swift, Timothy Szarek, Alexis Truskalo, Heather VanAlstine, Marina Vasquez, Lan Vo, Katharina Wesel, Janet Witter, David Youngentob, Jaime Zolfaghari

Posted by Erin Fleming, guest blogger

This is part of a series covering BWB Co-Founder Xavier's recent trip to Africa.

*November 12, 2007

          
           Library in Thembalisizwe Primary School.

We started our day of school visits at a very fortunate school, Thembalisizwe ("Hope of the Nation") Primary. We passed by zebras on the drive down rust dirt roads bordered by emerald green fields. I say fortunate because this school has benefited from the generosity of many organizations. It has a water reticulation system and latrines from a Wisconson Rotary Club, classrooms built by the Eshowe Community Action Group (ECAG) and a library from BWB.  The buildings are pink and yellow and surrounded by manicured walks and ornamental bushes planted by students.

We are hosted by Jethro, dressed in a pin-striped suit with yellow shirt and gold tie.  He is the principal and a born orator who has recently been to the USA and knows what wealth we have in our country.  After we saw the school he appealed to us, "Some of you may be touched, and donate."  He lays out his vision for the school: more computers, internet, a dining hall with a proper kitchen, more classrooms. Currently, two volunteer women prepare food over fires in a shed-like structure; each primary student is fed one meal a day at school.

We wandered the campus for a few minutes, listening to the learners singing in their classrooms as they do each morning and then headed to a multi-use room for a presentation by the student body.

                      
Xavier, Jethro and Melanie (ECAG South Africa director) watch students perform.

This was such a treat! Students of all ages sang, danced and recited poetry and speeches for us. We heard our national anthem and joined in for South Africa's, heard gospel songs in Zulu language, and one seemingly written for our group. The lyrics included these lines:

America, America! America you're so beautiful.
Some of us are the orphans, some of us are so needy (2x).
America, America! America you're so beautiful.
We love you, hey! We need you, hey! Can you help us, we're so needy!

We were a little uncomfortable to hear that one. It was strange to be somewhere for the purpose of helping, when the need is known, but to hear the kids sing about it. Xavier and I discussed how in the US it is bad form to appeal in that way. More cultural lessons: the 5th and 6th grade girls left the room in school uniforms and returned in costume, which was a miniskirt, a string of beads and a cardboard shield.  Our group had to overcome a bit of shock to see these young girls dancing and singing, quite well in fact, but wearing nothing above the waist. I thought it was cool to see this total other sort of body acceptance, as compared to the US.

Video of boys performing a traditional dance (youtube)

According to the program director, the school is "not like a pond, but like a running river," never stagnant.  When she thanked the Books for Africa board members of our group, she said the learners "have acquired certain skills, such as investigation. Our learners can investigate to find information. Our learners are different than previous; they have learned new skills from their library." (YAY!)

Video of the library (youtube)


Students wave goodbye at Thembalisizwe Primary School, Zululand, South Africa.