Beginning December 1, 2006, I will be highlighting on a monthly basis, individuals and/or chapters in my region, that have demonstrated exceptional qualities of leadership with the” Book Drives for Better Lives” altruistic service project/ fundraiser on campus.  The individuals and/or clubs receiving special recognition have lead a superior drive…raising awareness on campus for the book campaign, recruiting volunteers, motivating and educating students and professors at the Planning Session, delegating tasks and ‘rolling up their sleeves’  to ensure that the book drive is a successful, campus-wide event on their campus! 

I have had the privilege of working with many wonderful people.  The first recipient of this Award is Whitney Ellis from Golden Key International Honour Society at Florida State University.

Whitney has shown outstanding leadership skills to make the book drive benefiting ‘Room to Read’ a reality – and a success – at FSU!!

She was an Officer in her Golden Key Chapter last spring when we first connected, studying full-time, majoring in Studio Art as well as working a part-time job. She made the decision to lead the drive on campus as she believed wholeheartedly in our mission to help break the cycle of poverty and dependence through literacy…one book at a time.

 Whitney and her husband, Josh (who served in Iraq from 2003-2004 and currently the GK  President at FSU) were married in a civil ceremony in May of 2005.  The date that they set for their ‘official’ wedding with guests, gown, reception, etc. was set for May 20,  2006….little did she know when she set the date the year before, that she would willingly be packing boxes of books with Josh and organizing a cadre of volunteers the month of her wedding!!  Whitney, while studying, working part-time and planning for her wedding would come home to her apartment where the second bedroom was overflowing with books!  She was tireless in her approach to organizing the book drive on campus!

Anything that I would suggest to Whitney, she implemented…an article in the campus newspaper, a PSA in the local radio stations to promote the drive, facebook, tabling ( that’s Josh at the table), recruiting volunteers, another club to co-lead the drive,  (this semester we are piloting a program where there will be two pairs of organizations, a total of four clubs, leading autonomous, simultaneous book drives on campus), flyers around campus, working with the recycling department on campus, table tents in the dining halls, inviting her on-campus bookstore to participate and with great frustration, tried to get the off-campus bookstore to participate (met with him in person, drafted and sent a letter to the manager, asked her friends who work at the bookstore convince him to help.)...

Whitney continues in her steadfast commitment to help those in Southeast Asia, who are trying to find hope through education. This morning she told me that she was going to take a little time off of work to make sure that someone was always at the table to answer questions and keep an eye on the collection boxes during their tabling hours this week….

The unrestricted funding that is generated from all of her books to help Room to Read reach out to so many underprivileged children and families is priceless….Thanks, Whitney, for using your gifts of leadership to help others in such a meaningful way…

I recently had the privilege of personally meeting the Zeta Psi chapter of Alpha Phi Omega coeducational national service fraternity at the University of Oregon. We may often have the misconception that unwanted book collections may be the largest and/or only activity for a student group any given term, but to my surprise the University of Oregon APO chapter undertakes one such project a week! According to the president, moreover, some weeks may bring up to three activities!

The APO chapter at the University of Oregon had performed so well in raising funds, for example, that they received an unrestricted scholarship from Better World Books in appreciation! I can suspect that the other projects they undertake are equally successful.

It is continually amazing what a group of motivated students can achieve! One doesn’t need access to a wealth of resources or have impressive connections, one needs only drive, leadership, organization, and motivation.

This holiday season, Better World Books is proud to play a role in the Verizon Season’s Readings 2006 campaign.  To learn more about this exciting partnership, please visit http://foundation.verizon.com/seasons-readings.

Better World Books is proud to announce the winners of our Spring 2006 scholarship awards. We worked with student groups at over 900 colleges across North America, and split the schools into 6 categories based on full-time undergraduate enrollment. The student organization in each category that collected the largest number of qualifying books won an additional $1,000 scholarship to support their other on-campus projects. Congratulations to all of these great book drive leaders!

Better World Books Spring 2006 Scholarship Winners:

0 to 2,499 students:
The New Life Foundation at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL ran a drive on behalf of Books for Africa, resulting in 1,132 qualifying books.

2,500 to 4,999 students:
The Alpha Phi Omega chapter at Loyola College of Baltimore, MD also benefited Books for Africa.  Their efforts brought in 1,926 qualifying books.

5,000 to 9,999 students:
The Books for Africa group at George Washington University Foggy Bottom Campus in Washington DC ran a Books for Africa drive, collecting 3,755 qualifying books.

10,000 to 14,999 students:
The Golden Key Honour Society at the University of New Hampshire at Durham supported Room to Read through their spring drive. With the help of the Durham Book Exchange, they brought in 1,792 qualifying books.

15,000 to 19,999 students:
The University of Oregon’s Alpha Phi Omega chapter in brought in 5,855 qualifying books in support of Books for Africa.

20,000 and up:
The Circle K chapter at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University collected 6,063 qualifying books on behalf of Books for Africa. This was made possible by the generous support of Memorial Student Center Bookstore, Loupots Bookstore, Texas Aggie Bookstore and Beat the Bookstore.

Many thanks to all of our wonderful student groups & bookstores across North America!
There were hundreds of successful book drives last semester, thanks to all of your hard work and dedication to worldwide literacy. We excited to work with you in the coming semesters to make an even greater social and environmental impact – please check back for upcoming stories highlighting some of our best drives of the past year.

As part of our ongoing efforts to be good stewards of the earth, and all the people who inhabit it, Better World Books is pleased to announce that as of today, all shipments on orders from BetterWorld.com are carbon neutral!

Carbonfund.org Pioneers Carbonfree™ Shipping

A pioneering program to offset shipping-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions, Carbonfree™ Shipping, is being launched today, according to Carbonfund.org. The program was designed in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University’s Green Design Institute. It involves a breakthrough method for calculating shipping-related carbon dioxide emissions. The first four companies to participate in the program are BetterWorld.com, evo (Evogear.com), 3r Living, and alonovo.com.

How the Program Works

When a shipment travels from a warehouse to its destination, fossil fuels are burned, producing CO2. CO2 is one of the primary gases contributing to climate change. Carbonfund.org worked with a research team at Carnegie Mellon to design a proprietary method for determining how much CO2 is produced by each shipment.

The shipping industry moves billions of units every year and accounts for more than 600 million tons of CO2, according to US government figures. This is more than the CO2 emissions for the entire country of Canada. The Carbonfree™ Shipping program has the opportunity to revolutionize how this industry deals with its carbon emissions by providing an easy and affordable offset solution. A typical package will cost just a few pennies to offset the climate impact, depending on the weight of the shipment, the method of shipment, and the distance the package will travel.

How Carbon Offsetting Works

The initial program partners – BetterWorld.com, evo, 3r Living, and alonovo.com – have agreed to “offset” the CO2 created by their shipments. Carbon offsets zero out CO2 emissions from one source by reducing the emissions from another. For example, Carbonfund.org uses offset funds to support renewable energy projects such as wind and bio-fuels that reduce or offset CO2. Carbonfund.org also supports energy efficiency and reforestation projects that effectively rendering the activity "carbon neutral". Offsetting helps underwrite the development of a renewable energy infrastructure.

Starting today, all shipments from BetterWorld.com will be Carbonfree™

Evogear.com and 3r Living will offer the Carbonfree™ option to their customers; alonovo.com is integrating the option into their platform.

"This is a big step forward for the fast-growing carbon offset industry," says Eric Carlson, executive director of Carbonfund.org. "This program demonstrates that individuals and companies can have an impact on this global problem, one shipment at a time. It also proves that it’s not nearly as expensive to deal with climate change as many people might think."

Posted by: Aliya Haq
Regional Director
Northern California

Thanksgiving is the typical time to feel grateful for what you have, so I hear. To tell the truth, I'm not one to be sentimental and usually the primary thought that crosses my mind on Thanksgiving is "When do we eat?"

This past Thursday, my role in Better World Books really hit it home for me that I am really, really lucky. I'm more than well-fed, I've got a college degree under my belt, and I have access to health care: a trifecta of good fortune.

Normally, I think about such achievements as the product of hard work and intellect, not the environment of opportunities I was born into. "Gee, I'm really glad that I wasn't surrounded by violence, famine, and an AIDS crisis when I was a kid," is usually not my first thought about how my life's events have unfolded. Living in the United States, it's easy to forget how lucky I've been, since most of the time I interact with people who are equally fortunate.

Considering the relationship between poverty, war, disease and illiteracy, it's a no-brainer that education must be improved for children who aren't as lucky as myself, here in the U.S. and worldwide.

Like I said, I'm not one for sentimentality, but I'm really grateful that Better World Books has engaged so many people in this mission of literacy  -- and I'm grateful that our BWB partners (including students, professors, librarians and bookstore managers) take part in this mission year-round, not just on a turkey-filled holiday.

Six Flags Great America (Chicago, IL) – On September 30, employees from the Accenture – Chicago office collected over 2000 books during their inaugural Corporate Book Drive, which was run in conjunction with the Annual Company Picnic.  Employees were encouraged to collect new and lightly used books and drop them off as they entered the park.  The books that were collected will be sold by Better World Books, and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to Room to Read.

                   

Sometimes the true meaning of something, in this case, Thanksgiving, is best defined and understood through the eyes of others. Below is a message from one of the people the BWB team met with in Tanzania this past summer.  Billy is a recent graduate of the University of Miami and ran book drives with us there while he was a student.  After graduation, he joined the Jesuit Volunteers Corp and went to work in a school (The Loyola School) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

----------------------------------------------------------
mary, david, patrick... [that is Mary Murphy, Regional Director of BWB, David Murphy, CEO of BWB, and Pat Plonski, director of Books For Africa, respectively]
 
Greetings from this side of the globe and happy thanksgiving....no turkey here so eat extra for me...
 
EOTF finally help the book distribution ceremony this past monday after sorting through all the books and determining what went where...in all they sent books to 602 secondary school, a bunch of primary schools (i forget the #) and 14 government libraries nation wide...it was a huge success and publicized well...my students who live in the city and have TVs say the ceremony was all over the news...during it both mr. basil (the exec. director) and mama mkapa expressed their sincere gratitude to books for africa and better world books....and even though we dont celebrate thanksgiving here, today all of us at loyola are forever grateful as well...attached is a picture from the event...hope all is well with you and your familiies this time of year...God bless you and the work you do...peace...
--bb
 
In Faith and Humble Service,
Billy  [last name edited for the sake of privacy]
Jesuit Volunteers International
Educator, Social Servant 
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Click to Enlarge Image

Some praise for Better World Books showed up recently on John's Corner of the World. Introduced to Better World Books by a used book purchase (as many are...), John dived in a lot deeper and wrote his thoughts down in blog posts on: Integrating One's Mission and A Purpose/Mission-Driven Business

If only every used book shopper had the curiousity to dive in that deeply!

There are innumerable benefits to coordinating a campus book drive, for student leaders and bookstores alike. The most obvious, of course, is the tremendous amount of material and financial support that Better World Books is able to provide to our literacy partners as a result of their hard work. 

For student organizations, spearheading a drive is not only a meaningful service project, but also a successful fundraiser, as well as a great way to generate some buzz and raise your profile on campus, which can lead to a greater recruitment turn out.

For bookstores, supporting a drive drives foot traffic to your store, and does wonders in terms of generating goodwill toward your store – particularly during buy-back, when it’s needed most. Many stores are taking the positive PR one step further, by providing bookstore scholarships or making donations to local charities with funds provided by BWB.

But in many cases, there are far greater – yet harder to measure - implications to coordinating a book drive. For example, many of the 900+ BWB book drives that took place last Spring were coordinated by Alternative Breaks groups. Alternative Breaks is an amazing organization that provides students with the opportunity to engage in week-long, intensive service-learning projects over Winter and/or Spring Break, as opposed to hitting the beach for a week of debauchery.

These groups often use the funding they’ve generated through their campus book drive to subsidize the expense of sending large groups of students to a distant locale for a week of service. Speaking from experience (I participated in 3 Alternative Breaks as an undergrad), I can tell you that some of the students who participate in these trips will have the most profound, defining experiences of their lives. Some of these students will be so deeply moved that they will alter their course of study and their chosen career paths. Some of them will choose a life of service as a direct result of having participated in an Alternative Break. Indeed, most of the choices I’ve made in my own professional life can be traced back to my first Alternative Break in 1997, when I traveled from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Atlanta, Georgia to work with the city’s homeless population.

So please, dig deeper. Look beyond the most obvious and immediate benefits of coordinating (or simply supporting) a campus book drive. There is such great potential in cultivating a civically engaged student body. One act - be it donating a book, coordinating a drive, or supporting a student organization that is - can set off a chain reaction that will dramatically affect the lives of far more people than you’ll ever know. Pay it forward.

Thank you for making the Mega Regional (CACS, NCBA, SWCBA, RMSBA) such a rousing sucess.  Our contingent of 5 RDs (Natasha-So Cal, Aliya-Nor Cal, Andy-Northwest, Erin-Rocky Mountain, Laurie-Southwest), a founder (Xavier), a literacy partner (Jayson, Room to Read), and myself had a wonderful time connecting with our bookstore supporters.

I want to thank my student clubs for highlighting their bookstores that support “Book Drives for Better Lives” on campus!  

When the student organizations partner with their bookstore for a common good, it’s important that all of the students on campus know this…and support their bookstores!!!   These books that are donated are bringing hope and a life-sustaining change to so many people and their families.   Poverty and illiteracy are inseparable…and when the bookstores support their student organizations to make this a campus-wide event….great things can happen…lives can change for the better.

Posted by:  Mary Murphy