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!

Niko Tomlinson
Senior Director, Midwest