Books For Africa... again!

Dear University of Guelph Community,

My name is Ana Perkovic and I am writing to you on behalf of Guelph’s Books for Africa team. We are running a Better World Books campus book drive to benefit Books for Africa (www.booksforafrica.org) and we would love to have your support! Our goal is to collect 1,500 books during our book drive - please help us by donating any university and college-level books from the past 5 years that you no longer need!

Starting on December 4th, 2006 we will set up big green and white collection boxes at the University Bookstore, Coop Bookstore, University Centre courtyard, and East Town Hall, which will remain up until December 15th, 2006. We’re looking to collect any book from the last 5 years that could be used in a college classroom – highlighting/writing in books is fine.

Please donate any books you are unable to sell back at buybacks! Many of these books will be sold online to raise much-needed funding for Books for Africa (100% of profits, after all costs, will go to BFA as unrestricted funding), and some books will be directly sent to BFA and distributed to African countries in need.

About our team:
We are a group of 11 students committed to sponsoring the Books for Africa book drive. We are always interested in getting to know more members of our community who are interested in donating books, helping collect books, promoting the book drive and anything else that will help us host a successful book drive. Last year, with the help of individuals like yourselves, we raised an enough books to stock over 15 schools in Tanzania (over 4,000 books!) and raised over $1,900 for Habitat for Humanity and $250 for Best Buddies. We hope that with your help, this year will be as successful as and possibly even more successful than last years’ book drives!

About Books for Africa:
Books For Africa (BFA) is the largest shipper of donated textbooks to the African continent. Founded in 1988, the St. Paul-based organization has delivered more than 14.3 million books to 27 African countries. According to Patrick Plonski, executive director of Books For Africa, the need for books on the African continent is great: “In many African villages, seven children share one book. Some village schools own no books whatsoever.”

Learn more by watching BFA’s 10-minute video: www.booksforafrica.org/video.html.

About Better World Books:
Better World Books (BWB) capitalizes on the value of the book to fund and support literacy initiatives locally, nationally, and around the world. Since its founding in 2003, Better World Books has raised more than $1.3 million for its non-profit literacy partners (including over $900,000 for BFA), provided more than 450,000 books for direct use & diverted in excess of five million pounds of books from landfills! Learn more at www.betterworldbooks.com.

Thank you in advance for your help with our project – please spread the word to everyone you know!

Sincerely,

Ana Perkovic
Co-executive, Personnel Director
Books for Africa team
University of Guelph
Email: aperkovi@uoguelph.ca