Deck the Halls with Books, by Golly!

Unfortunately, things are pretty busy right now, what with finals and the upcoming winter vacation...

However, we'd like to really thank the Smith family for donating (and helping us load!) a whole carful of books -- we very much appreciate it! Millie S.'s Girl Scout Troop, including Rachel E., little sister of Molly E., raised hundreds of books for our cause as a service project. Thanks so much!

A safe and happy break to all, and hope you read some good books over the holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for your giving!

Ah, today was the first day of break, and the Nguyens took some time to deliver 100 books each to 2 clinics. We plan to pick up books this week, as well -- they'll put us over 2000 books! Shirts are on the way, too.

Kathy N. (left) and Tanya N.

Kathy N. (left) and Tanya N.

Kathy N. (left), Tanya N., and Dr. Nazarie Romain

the Tides, They Are A-Changin'

Whew, October was a busy month, so it's really nice to be able to focus on Bookaneers efforts more now. New developments!

First, we will have t-shirts soon. It'd be great to get input about possible designs!

Also, we're proud to support our troops by participating in Operation Paperback, through which we can send gently used paperback books to American soldiers overseas who request them. On Thursday, we sent 11 boxes with a total of 222 books. Thanks so much to Mrs. Nguyen, who sponsored the shipment, which cost roughly $5 a box with the media mail option. We hope they can arrive in time for the holidays!

Tanya N. (left) and Kathy N. with the boxes at the post office

So even if you do not have books to donate, please consider sponsoring a box of books -- any amount helps!

Finally, thanks very much to the Beta members who donated books. On Thursday, we picked up 134 books from Mrs. Benda's room, bringing our total count really close to 2000! :D

Book Shipping

Elisabeth D. came by today to pick up some (sorted) donations from the Nguyen garage. Her father is traveling again soon, so we're excited to give so many books and mags. Thanks, Deeb!


We're also going to be delivering children's books to a couple of ROR clinics soon, and we're planning a meeting next week.

Sunday Bookaneers Sunday

Sunday was quite the productive day! Kate P., Liz T., Ramsey W., Shari M., and Micah G. came over to the Nguyen residence to help sort out what seemed to be tons of books, and we had fun doing it!

Bookaneers also are probably going to have t-shirts sometime! Stay tuned. :D

From Bookaneers Photo Gallery

From Bookaneers Photo Gallery

From Bookaneers Photo Gallery

From Bookaneers Photo Gallery

From Bookaneers Photo Gallery

"Wrapped Up In Books" -- Belle & Sebastian

News from Overseas

Today we received an email from Marcus H., a Peace Corps volunteer to whom we sent two boxes of books for a new trilingual library established by the Peace Association of Sidi Allal Bahraoui.

Hello Tanya and Kathy,

As promised, here are a few pictures of people with the books. I invited a few of my students to come to the library and check out some of the books that you sent. They loved them. I had planned on having a picture with a big thank you sign but was unable to because of lack of time and because banners are really expensive here and the association is currently running low on cash.

I really apologize for the delay. It's Ramadan, which means that things move really slowly and people tend to stay in their houses because they're so hungry and thirsty.

Once again, thanks so much for your generosity. I really can't convey how grateful the association, my students and I are.

Best,

Marcus

Thanks for the wonderful pictures, Marcus!

We are getting more boxes of books soon and are planning a sorting day next Sunday. There's much to be done on the Bookaneers agenda!

Blown Out Of The Water!

WE'VE BROKEN OUR 1500 GOAL AFTER MERE MONTHS!!! THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL WHO HAVE HELPED US ALONG THE WAY...AND YOU CAN BE SURE THERE'S MORE TO COME! LET'S SEE IF WE CAN GET OUR NEXT THOUSAND BOOKS IN RECORD TIME!

Today the Nguyens were ecstatic to gather 132 books generously donated by Mr. G and the science department -- much appreciation to Katie B. for getting them together for us! This is nowhere near the end of our journey, and we have a lot of work to do! We have new ideas we can't wait to launch, so please join the club if you want to get involved.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED THE BOOKANEERS CAMPAIGN; YOUR EFFORTS ARE TRULY APPRECIATED.
And we're really not just saying that!

Rocking the Boat

Thanks to all who came in the morning and/or helped out at Club Fair!

We had one of our yearbook pictures taken with our display board this morning. Kate P. brought in a nice load of youth books. We had a strong success at Club Fair during all 3 lunch periods, with all but 3 of our flyers taken and an extensive list of names of interested people made. Way to go!

Almost to Port!

If you'll take a look at our thermometer, you'll notice that we are ALMOST THERE in reaching our 1500 book goal! Whoever donates the 1500th book gets a special prize...haha. But by no means does that mean we'll stop -- it's full steam ahead for us!

Today, we received 13 books from Beta Club, so thanks to Kelsey B. for putting the book drive on the Beta agenda and sponsor Ms. Benda for helping us with that.

We'll be covered in the yearbook! Sandrine N. is in charge of taking pictures for us, and we plan to have the first one on Club Fair day, Wednesday, September 10th with an awesome Bookaneers display board. Please stop by our table then!

Also, PLEASE let us know if you know of any place that will take donations of adult age audience books. Please ask around if anyone knows of perhaps a rural or needy library, or a senior center that would make good use of the books. Thanks!

the Seven Seas

It's really exciting when we can make a tangible impact around the world. Mr. Deeb, Elisabeth D.'s father, recently visited Azerbaijan. There, he delivered 2 boxes of college textbooks and business/science reference books from the Bookaneers collection to the library of Khazar University. If you or anyone you know has any of these kinds of books to donate, the library would greatly appreciate them and hopes to continue this cooperation!

PICTURES COMING SOON

On 7/8/08, Tom Deeb wrote:

Dear Tatyana,

It was a pleasure to meet you on Saturday and visit your university. I was impressed and we hope to continue to provide materials that would be of use to the university and it's students. Based on our conversations we will focus on reference books and textbooks in the areas of business, marketing, sales, computer and petroleum engineering as well as science and engineering reference texts.

Attached you will find a brief description of the student organization that organizes and collects the books.

Again thank-you for your time on Saturday and we look forward to seeing you again.
I have attached a photo that Fariz took as well.

Regards,
Tom Deeb

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 3:31 AM, Tatyana Zayseva wrote:

Dear Thomas,

Thanks a lot for your e-mail and a picture as well.

It is my pleasure to forward to you my enthusiastic thanks letter for your book donation.

Thanks to your help we received a wonderful gift to our library core collection and a wonderful reminder of a thoughtful fan.

Now members of our Community, especially students and teachers have opportunity to enjoy studying of received books. These educational and scientific materials have played an important role in the growth and development of the Khazar University Library Information Center collection.

Khazar University Community will enjoy and make good use of the books we have received. There are already in the university library's open access shelves.

We wish you all the best in your efforts and hope our partnership would be continued.

God bless all your endeavors.

P.S. Please find attached some pictures.

Warmest wishes,
Tatyana Zaytseva
Director
Library Information Center
Khazar University
11 Mehseti Street
Baku AZ1096, Azerbaijan
Phone: [#]
Fax: [#]
www.khazar.org
E-mail: zaytceva@hotmail.com

Dear Elisabeth,

Your donation of 2 boxes of books was very well received and they look forward to close cooperation in the future.

Great Job.

Tom

Pirate Counsel

Hey all,

Bookaneers had the first meeting as an official school club on Thursday morning in Mrs. Premoli's room! We'd LOVE it if you'd join -- we're planning on having an informational gathering soon, which we'll publicize. Check out the new officers listed on the left! We have a lot of plans and ideas about expanding local efforts for this year, so we're pretty excited.

Ramsey W. started us off with a bag of 22 books from summer collecting, and special thanks to Josh H.'s girlfriend Abigail W. for a gift card to B&N that we can use to buy books to donate!

Broadening Our Reach

We are very close to establishing Bookaneers as an official school club, thanks to Ramsey W. Our sponsor is Mrs. Premoli. We'll be up and running soon!

We are also in contact with Rahim D., to whom we're very grateful for his ideas and effort. You'll hear more about this later as we work things out.

School has started back up, so we're all very busy, but we'll keep going strong.

From the Captains' Log

From Marcus Haymon:

Dear Kathy and Tanya,

I wanted to let you know that I received the books this afternoon and they are great. It's a wonderful selection and the level is entirely appropriate. The association and I are both very grateful for your generosity and time and the books will most definitely be used and appreciated.

I know you'd like a picture to post on your blog and we will work on getting that to you. However, not until September or so. School is out and most Moroccans travel for the entire summer so the library is currently closed. Furthermore, I will be in and out of my site for the next few weeks. Once things settle down and classes resume, I'll be sure to send you a few pictures.

Thank you so much,
Marcus

+

Tanya N. and devoted member Josh H.

Hope everyone is having an excellent summer! Keep the donations coming. :)

Just Keep Swimming

Arr ye mateys, thar be updates t'be told --

On Monday and Wednesday, the Nguyens delivered a few more loads of book donations:

Tanya N. (left) and Kathy N.

Thanks so much Tanya and everyone for dropping off so many books. It means so much to all of the patients and staff here! Thanks again.

Dr. Sumner

Tanya N. (left) and Kathy N.

Tanya N. (left) and Kathy N. with Dr. White

Tanya N.

Tanya N. with Dr. Rodney

-----

Dear Bookaneers, & Kathy,

Thank you for the books you donated to Asa G Yancey Health Center. They are in nice condition and we'll enjoy sharing them with our patients, especially now at "Back to school" checkups. We appreciate your efforts to support Reach Out and Read!

Thanks,

BJ Steele MD

We also got into the Roswell Neighbor!

[click for larger image]

Book Driving.

What a day yesterday: over 4 hours on the road, including lovely rush hour traffic, to deliver books. Unfortunately, the doctors who we contacted were not available at the time, so we left the donation with others. But it was worth it, and it's honestly gratifying to contribute to Georgia's ROR programs!

We are always welcoming new books. I'm glad you found us. Do you have books for children or adults? We primarily distribute to children but we do have a bookshelf where adults can take books.

Would you be able to drop it off at the below address? Otherwise, maybe we could meet up somewhere? Thanks so much.

Deborah Sumner, MD
Department of Community Medicine
Grady North Fulton Clinic
1143 Alpharetta Hwy
Roswell, GA 30075
[#]

Wow,

I just read your blog. What an impressive endeavor! It sounds like many of the Grady docs have already contacted you. We could certainly wait if you need to reaccumulate your supplies. It comes at a good time as Congress just decreased the budget for the Reach Out and Read program (I guess all of the money is going to Iraq) so we will have to look even harder at other sources of funding and books.
Is anyone from your group interested in volunteering to read to the patients who are in our waiting rooms? Modeling reading aloud to children is such an important step to promoting literacy in the home. Please let me know.
Thanks so much.

Deborah Sumner, MD
Department of Community Medicine
Grady North Fulton Clinic
1143 Alpharetta Hwy
Roswell, GA 30075
[#]

Sorry, I did not email you earlier today to thank you for the books.
I do regret not getting a chance to speak to you also when you came.
I gave one of my patients one of the Berenstein Bear books this evening as soon as they arrived!

I truly appreciate this book donation.

Jennifer Fowlkes-Callins MD


A job satisfactorily done.

Books Away!

[click picture for larger]
We were in the Roswell Beacon!
Thanks to great crew member Josh H. for writing in and to Katherine E. for scanning and emailing it.

Today we drove around downtown Atlanta -- fortunately, we had GPS, or we would've gotten lost! We delivered bags of 50 books to 3 clinics: Grady North Fulton, Asa G. Yancey Health Center, and Grady East Point. More to follow!

Please keep the donations coming!

More Plunder

Just as it was starting to rain today, Tanya picked up books from Shari M., who collected about 120 during her July 5th Collect-a-thon. Now we have over 1,000! Three cheers to her neighbors in Inverness for all the hardcovers, paperbacks, and National Geographics!
With luck, other neighborhood drives will have even more success.

Those of you who attend churches around Roswell might spot one of our collection boxes, so next time you visit, please drop some books off!

Current Currents

Just a few quick updates:

1. Wow, we're almost running out of books! Please continue donating, and get others involved! We especially are focusing on children's books right now. Also, we'll take good quality magazines, like old National Geographics, for libraries.
2. This morning we delivered 3 bags of 30 books each to the Roswell Senior Center. The center manager, Sandra Hanson, was kind enough to agree to transport 2 of the bags to the other North Fulton centers in Alpharetta and Sandy Springs. Thanks so much!
   
   
   Kathy N. and Ms. Hanson
   
   
   
3. Another clinic contacted us for books! Here are the e-mails of the 4 people representing 5 clinics:
   

We would greatly appreciate any books you donate to us.
We see children ages 0 -17 in my clinic but we see patients of all ages.
I am the only full time pediatrician and we have 7 full (or part-time) family physicians.
I can be reached via email or my clinic [#].

Jennifer Fowlkes-Callins MD

Our Reach Out and Read Program would love your donations. Our children love receiving books year round. My office telephone number is [#] or you can e-mail me. I hope we can discuss delivery. I will be on vacation next week.
Thanks,

Tiquette White, MD

My name is Ashley Lauria and I am the current Program Coordinator for the Reach Out and Read programs at the International Medical Center and Lindbergh Women and Children's Health Center. I received your emails about the donation offer and we would be more than grateful to receive the donations for both sites. Our ROR programs are constantly in need of books to supply our reading program and to stock the waiting rooms, so they will definitely be put to good use. Please let me know at your earliest convenience how we coordinate either delivering or picking up the books.
Thank you!

+Ashley Lauria
Emory University c/o 2010
Reach Out and Read Program Coordinator (Grady Hospital-IMC & Lindbergh Clinic)
Kappa Kappa Gamma- Assistant to the Philanthropy Chair

Thanks for finding us; we could use some used books, but our clinic is a little small (2 pediatricians) and storage is limited. Are the books appropriate for ages 1 to 5? If so, I'd say we could store about 200 books. You can reach me at [#] (or [#]) at the clinic.

Our local/regional ROR coordinator might know where to place the other books;her name is Renee Ross, at [#]. Also, you might contact some of the other Grady neighborhood clinics; Dekalb Grady (Dr.Karen Duncan--[#]), North Dekalb (Dr.Dawn Swaby-Ellis--[#]), or North Fulton (Dr. Munoz-[#]) or Lindberg Clinic ([#]).

Thank you for your encouragement of book-reading to children; it is a passion I share.

B.J. Steele MD

Cruising By

What's the total count of books so far? IT'S OVER NINE HUNDRED!

On Thursday, Bookaneers spent another 4 good hours producing results. First, we went to Josh H.'s house to pick up about 60 books and give 20 flyers and a pin, so thanks for your efforts, Josh!

Then, we went to Shari M.'s house to drop off a donation box for the awesome collect-a-thon she's hosting on Saturday, July 5. Shari, with her extensive knowledge of Roswell, also came along with us to do the real work: asking places around town for help with the book drive.

During the day, we visited the Land Of A Thousand Hills Coffeeshop, whose excellent coffee helps widows of the Rwandan genocide, where friendly barista Anna S. said she would definitely ask if they could host a collection box or have flyers in the store. We also went to the City Hall and the Visitor Center, where we received suggestions on where to collect and donate books; we were also able to leave flyers at the latter.

In addition, we drove around Roswell to visit a total of 8 churches to ask if we could leave a collection box and/or flyers. Most said they would get back to us, but Northbrook United Methodist Church took flyers, and Andrew at First Christian Church [11365 Crabapple Rd.] and Ginger at Roswell Assembly of God [11440 Crabapple Rd.] took donation boxes.

Finally, we headed back to Shari's neighborhood at Inverness to tape flyers to about 150 mailboxes and at the club house. We think her collect-a-thon will be a great success!

Thanks so much for everybody's help!

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:
[click for bigger picture]

Thanks, Northbrook United Methodist Church for letting us leave some flyers for your members to see!

Thanks to Andrew at First Christian Church for agreeing to hold a donation box!

We're really grateful to Ginger at Roswell Assembly of God for allowing us to set up a collection box!

If you live in Inverness, you'll see one of our flyers on your mailbox. :)

Swimmingly

Things are going along swimmingly.

Added to our list of book donation recipients are Senior Service centers in Georgia -- specifically right now three in North Fulton: Roswell, Sandy Springs, and Alpharetta. The Senior Services North Fulton, Inc. site is under maintenance at the moment. We're glad to be giving them 30 books for adults each to brighten the days of elderly individuals.

Our shipment of supplies from Indiana is expected to arrive on the 24th, and it is currently right on track.

We've just added a Do Something Project Page -- please visit to rate, nominate, and comment! We are applying for a $500 Plum Grant from Do Something.

Catching Drifts

Yesterday our wonderful Better World Books contact Mrs. Murphy ordered for us:

• 50 shipping boxes and blank adhesive labels
• 1 commercial roll of tape
• 20 collection boxes
• 20 lids
• NCFL Bookmarks and pins to give to people who donate books
• 20 NCFL posters

We also received a reimbursement form to help us with costs of copying flyers for around town.

Through the Reach Out and Read program, we contacted several Fulton County medical clinics. So far, three people -- Dr. Jennifer Fowlkes-Callins of Grady Health Center - East Point, Tiquette Mason of West End Medical Center, and Ashley Lauria of International Medical Center and Lindbergh Women & Children's Health Center -- have responded. We've bagged books (at least 50 for each location) and are going to make deliveries of children's/young adult books soon, sometime in early July.

We are pleased to welcome aboard Ramsey W. and Shari M.! Ramsey has volunteered to help start up an official club once school begins again, since he knows how to get that done. Shari is interested in running a collect-a-thon in her neighborhood soon. Thanks, thanks, thanks!

Also, check out the updated FAQ to learn more details on how we operate.

Ahoy there!

Still need to get those summer reading books?

Check out this online bookshop!
The site is part of Better World Books. You can buy from a vast selection of cheaper used or new books with FREE shipping -- and the proceeds all go to non-profit partners! BWB has raised over $4 million for global literacy so far.

Their main partners are:

• Books For Africa
• NCFL (whom we specifically chose to help)
• Room to Read (for children in developing countries, mostly in southeast Asia)
• WorldFund (to reduce poverty in Latin America)

as well as others on their site.

Better World Books has also helped rebuild the libraries of New Orleans and run thousands of book drives on campuses nationwide.

Plus, www.betterworld.com has book reviews and recommendations, so enjoy!

Today's activities [4+ constructive hours!]:

• Received formal letter from Marcus
• Posted
• Contacted Fulton County health center programs through the Reach Out and Read site
  
• Received two replies so far already
• Cleared out 2 bookshelves from the basement
• Cleaned garage and put in the bookshelves
• Packed 2 boxes (56 books) to send to Morocco for Marcus Haymon's new library
• Maybe we can send more in the future!
  
• Scanned our collection of books for Better World Books using a provided scanner
  
• Packed accepted reading material into 5 large boxes to send to Indiana
• UPS is coming tomorrow; shipping is paid for
  
• Organized rest of books on bookshelves
• Updated flyers -- for both the neighborhood and around Roswell
  
• Printed out 18 neighborhood
  
• Planning to distribute them very soon
• Cooked and ate some soup...
• It was minestrone

• E-mailed contacts, blogged, and brainstormed!

Tanya with 5 boxes to ship to Better World Books

Thanks, UPS!

Letter

Dear Bookaneers,

My name is Marcus Haymon and I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, serving in the Youth Development Sector. I write to you on behalf of the Peace Association of Sidi Allal Bahraoui to request English language books for a community library and literacy center.

The Peace Association of Sidi Allal Bahraoui is a small development association comprised of teachers in the primary and high schools. The association has strong roots in the community, having been established in 2003. Over the past 5 years the association has coordinated environmental clean-ups, anti-smoking campaigns, International Women's Day Celebrations and other community enrichment activities. In collaboration with the Peace Corps Volunteer, the association received funding to establish a tri-lingual library and literacy center. The library will have books in English, Arabic and French and will benefit all members of the community, primarily youth and women.

In Sidi Allal Bahraoui, much like all of Morocco, access to English language books and texts has become increasingly important. All students take English in high school and increased English reading materials will help students in their classes and improve their chances of succeeding on the English portion of the Baccalaureate exam. High levels of English help facilitate the job search and there is a wealth of information available in English books, newspapers and magazines. It is for these reasons that the Peace Association requests English language books for their library.

Children's books, short stories or Young Adults Novels are most appropriate, in addition to magazines and elementary school text books. However, any donations are greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your consideration and generosity.

Sincerely,

Marcus Haymon

Peace Corps Volunteer - Sidi Allal Bahraoui, Morocco

Youth Development Sector, 2006 - 2008

---

We're thrilled to be working with this new library, and we're going to be sending books very soon!

Reply to Marcus:

Dear Marcus,

Today we packed two boxes of mostly children's books to ship to Morocco. We are thoroughly enthusiastic about being able to make a contribution to the new library, and we think it's a great establishment. We wish you all the best.

Sincerely,
Bookaneers

Allies

Today we met Mrs. Murphy from Better World Books; she was very nice and helpful. She lent us a scanner which tells us which books are acceptable to be sent to Indiana so Better World Books can redistribute them through a selected beneficiary, in our case the National Center for Family Literacy. As for the books that aren't acceptable, she gave us a useful link that lists places nearby in need.
It's really awesome to collaborate with fellow book recycling enthusiasts!

We have overseas aims too: Marcus Haymon is currently in the Peace Corps in Morocco, and he's starting a new library, so we're conversing on sending some books over; it's exciting to be able to make an international difference.

We have more plans, so stay tuned!

Thanks, everyone.

Books Galore

Today, four of the crew, Kelsey B., Rebecca M., Tanya N., and Kathy N., met in the Nguyens' garage for three hours to organize the books and discuss plans. Here are some photos!

before

So we are over halfway to reaching our goal! This is fantastic! Thanks so much for all the help!

Rebecca M. is going to see about getting collection boxes set up at her dance place and Music Matters; she'll also contact her grandmother's library that might be able to use donations. Kelsey B. is going to try to talk to the Roswell Neighbor paper to see if they can help us with publicity and connections. Josh H., our newest member(!), is establishing his own neighborhood drive, which is awesome, and Biplab P. hopes to do the same. Elisabeth D. is going to message some hospitals involved with the Reach Out and Read program. We'll also call some women's shelters and contact other potential donation sites, such as universities. In addition, Marcus, a Peace Corps member who is building a library in Morocco, has expressed interest in receiving some children's books, which would be great. Asif L. will contribute some books sometime in the near future, and we know of others who have more, too.

Our effort is really starting to show, so let's keep up the progress! We would love if people would host drives in their own circles, spread the word, and help us with securing donation locations. Merci beaucoup!