Our Goal This Year: Book Buddies are shifting into high gear to bring even more books to kids in Title I schools next spring. Last year’s total of 40,000 books was great, but we hope to come close to doubling that in the 2018 – 2019 school year.
How? The same way we doubled our total between 2017 and 2018: hard work and a little help from our friends.
This year we are expanding the range of grades we will be serving. As we were able to include more elementary schools in our Book Celebrations last spring, we found that a number of them include grades beyond 5th. Several of the new academies in SAISD include Pre-K through 7th, and occasionally even 8thgrade. So, we are accepting and sorting for middle-school books as well as those for the primary grades this year. Consequently, we will need even more books to serve these schools fully.
We hope to apply for a larger donation from Better World Books — potentially doubling the number we received last year. Plus, our Book Drive Coordinator, Maria Salinas, and her committee are already hard at work inspiring new book drives all over San Antonio.
Run a book drive: Why not organize one yourself? You can do it in any group — neighborhood, workplace, social club, athletic team — anywhere there are people. We can send you printable posters and hints on running a successful drive, and we’ll even pick up the books if you can’t deliver them. Giving gently-used outgrown books to kids who do need them makes everyone feel good. Running a book drive is easy and it’s fun. Just email bookbuddies@saylonline.wpengine.comfor information.
Sign up to volunteer: Also easy and fun is volunteering at Book Buddies Headquarters. Maria Bush, our tireless Volunteer Coordinator, is scheduling volunteer times for sorting and boxing all those books. There is already a pretty big pile at our headquarters, and we need to get ahead of the sorting before the big boxes start flooding us. If you would like to volunteer, please email bookbuddies@saylonline.wpengine.com, and you will get announcements of volunteer sessions you can join. It will be two hours you won’t regret, and you’ll make new friends who love books and kids!
Donate: Book Buddies always needs funding for the work we do. We do receive thousands of free books from Better World Books; however, we have to pay for the freight to get them here. We hope to get two shipments of books from them this school year, and we need to raise $5,000 to make that happen. You can help by making a donation. Please make sure to designate it for “Book Buddies.” Many, many children will be grateful!
Jane Welch, Book Buddies Coordinator
To make a donation to Book Buddies, mail a check designated to Book Buddies to San Antonio Youth Literacy, 1616 E. Commerce, Bldg.2 San Antonio, TX 78205. Or call Pat Medina at 210-299-1533 x101 to make a donation over the phone. Online donations can also be made, however please still call Pat Medina to designate the donation to Book Buddies.
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