by Sarah Heckman and Sean Cullen, Alvernia University
We at Alvernia University have been able to win the Better World Book Drive for two consecutive years. Coming in with over 1,000 books collected, we’ve been asked how we have managed to collect so many books. We’d like to share some tips so that your chapter can gain success in supporting this wonderful organization Sigma Tau Delta has so closely connected with.
For the 2009 drive Alvernia senior Josh Smith led the book drive by teaming up with three other campus organizations. He not only focused on the collecting around our campus, but also outreached to the larger community. They had boxes available at all public locations across the county from libraries to local high schools. The support from our entire campus and chapter sponsors, Beth DeMeo and Carrie Fitzpatrick, helped to make all the difference. It was a lot of work collecting the books out of the boxes each week with all of the varying locations, but the teamwork made it all worth the while.
This year we felt determined to continue with the legacy that Josh Smith left behind. With such big shoes to fill for the next year, it quickly became apparent that we needed new ideas in order to accomplish this task. We used many of our resources the year before, but we still proceeded to clean out what was left in professors' offices, student bookshelves and local libraries. We expanded our search to our members’ homes. We failed to team up with other campus organizations, but fulfilled the drive solely as a Sigma Tau Delta chapter. With many of our members living within a three-hour drive of campus we used our home high school’s warehouses as a base for collecting books. Jessica Slavin, a junior, was successful working closely with her middle school’s secretary to bring up multiple car loads of boxes, along with Lauren Rocchino, whose father jumped on board to support the cause and managed to fill another van with books. It was the effort of all of these members, and our other members who took the time to move and pack the books, that brought our accepted book count to over 1,000.
After a long day over winter break all of the books were sorted and boxed. The teamwork of our small chapter was successful and rewarding. We suggest breaking down typical boundaries by going to any place that may give you permission to collect books. It never hurts to ask to place a box anywhere in the community. Better World Books has a powerful mission and sharing that mission makes people want to give what they're not using. The mission truly sells itself; we just need to be the messengers to spread the word to our communities.
(Photo Courtesy of Lauren Rocchino)
Better World Books
by Lauren Brandeberry (adapted from an article by Stephanie Schiefelbein)
A service project that also raises money for your chapter? No, it's not too good to be true. Thanks to Sigma Tau Delta's partnership with Better World Books, an organization that sponsors collegiate book drives to fund global literacy and green initiatives, you can support literacy in developing countries, raise money for your chapter, and keep books out of landfills. Read on to see how your chapter can get involved with this exciting effort.
The UPDATED Sigma Tau Deltan’s Guide to Running a Better World Books Drive
From Book Drives to Better Lives in Six Steps!
1) Get acquainted with Better World Books, their nonprofit global literacy partners, and their mission by checking out www.betterworldbooks.com.
2) Once you are ready to get started, or if you have any questions, email sigmataudelta@betterworldbooks.com and tell them that your chapter would like to start a book drive.
3) After emailing Better World Books, you will be contacted by an Account Representative who will act as your contact person throughout the entire book drive process and help you with all your questions!
4) Choose one of six nonprofit literacy partners, including our newest partner, Plan USA (Haiti). Learn about all six literacy partners at http://www.english.org/sigmatd/chapters/bookdrive.shtml.
5) Better World Books will send you everything you need to run your drive: posters, collection boxes, shipping boxes, a scanner to prescreen books, and tips for running your drive. Each chapter will have access to their own online portal to order supplies, ship books (at no cost to you!), and view an environmental impact summary of your book drive on campus.
6) Run your book drive and have fun—advertise, place collection bins in high traffic areas around campus, collect books, prescreen books (to earn even more for your chapter), then pack and ship the books. Better World Books will even pay for a packing party!
Chapters can earn up to $1.25 for each accepted book ($.50 per acceptable book, $1.00 for each prescreened acceptable book, $1.25 per acceptable book when more than 1,000 books are collected). Books that are not accepted are recycled. Books that are accepted are donated directly to literacy programs when possible, or they are sold and a portion of the profits goes to the literacy partner of your choice. And an additional $100 donation is made in the name of the chapter that collects the most books.
NEW! Participating chapters will be entered into a drawing for $100 in free books!
But that's not all! There are other benefits to our national partnership with Better World Books. Better World Books will sponsor a 6-week PAID summer internship in Alpharetta, Georgia, for a Sigma Tau Delta student member chosen through an application process.
AND
If you purchase books online through Better World Books using any Better World Books link on the Sigma Tau Delta website, you save 10% and a percentage of the profit is returned directly to Sigma Tau Delta.
Most significantly, your chapter gains the opportunity to fight for world literacy, a primary goal of both Sigma Tau Delta and Better World Books.
