Book drive | The Artsy Activist

Hi everyone! I’ve written about Take Action Camp before, and something I’ve mentioned is the process of action planning. My action plan this year is to hold a book drive and collect over 1 000 books for the organization Books for Africa and raise awareness about the importance of education and literacy in developing countries, which is something I am very passionate about. I’d really appreciate if you would read and share the following message, the real action of my action plan is beginning!

Hello,

My name is Addy, and I am a grade10 student at a West Carleton Secondary School. I have organized a large book drive to take place in schools around the Ottawa area this coming April. The books collected will all be sent to the organization Books for Africa (BFA), where they will be shipped to developing countries and communities across the continent. My goals are to collect over 1,000 books for this drive and also to raise awareness as to the importance of literacy and education in developing countries.

I am reaching out to you to ask for help in two aspects of this project, the first being shipment to the organization. The warehouse location for drop off is located in Atlanta, Georgia, which is quite a distance away, and we are having trouble finding a way to get the books there without paying extravagant shipping fees. Ideally, we would like to find a shipping company willing to transport the books free of charge, or a partially filled moving van or trailer on its way from Ontario to Atlanta that wouldn’t mind donating the use of its extra space. If you, or someone you know is capable of helping out with this aspect of the project, please let me know as soon as possible.

Our second issue is that we need to cover shipping from the BFA headquarters to Africa. The organization has set the shipping fees at 50 cents per book. We would like to ask any business or corporation interested in this cause to please consider sponsoring the shipping fees for any number of books. Any involvement would be greatly appreciated.

Last of all, if you are a teacher or principal in the Ottawa area and are interested in getting your school involved with this project please let me know as soon as possible so that I can continue to keep you updated on it’s progress and any logistics.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope that you will take the time to pass it on, and help us to make this project a success.

Addy Strickland

addy.strickland@gmail.com