Monday, July 18, 2011

Call for Help

My friend Danielle, who blogs YA books and other things over at Frenzy of Reads, asked me to spread the word about a school in Washington, D.C., that needs our help! The text of this post came directly from her.

A library in need...

"The literature section of Ballou Senior High School's library in Washington, DC has 63 books, not enough to fill five small shelves. In the area marked "Pure Science," there are 77 volumes. The generally accepted standard for school libraries is 11 books for each of Ballou's 1,104 students."
Why we should care:

"It's a challenge for kids to take their literacy seriously when they don't even have books to read. Ballou is located in the most dangerous ward in our nation's capitol. Right now, the library serves as a physical safe space and a refuge for students in off school hours, but wouldn't it be great if they had something to read while they were there--even choices across genre?....This is not the only school in the country with needs, but when the flare went up we saw it and chose to respond."
What they need:
Everything.  From Shakespeare to Octavia Butler to Richard Wright. Fantasy, sci-fi, YA, adult fiction, history books, poetry, classic literature, science. Basically anything and everything suitable for teens. She said they would take anything as long as it is in GOOD condition and has no writing in it. 
I've asked if they would accept ARCs (new or old), and the director of the book drive, Lisa, said YES. 

How to donate:
If you have books you want to give, please mail them directly to:
Perry School
c/o Margaret Pegram
128 M St. NW suite 318
Washington, DC 20001
Inside the box put a note that says "c/o Lisa P. Ballou Book Drive".

The school will be accepting books until August 22nd.

(Also, if you'd like to include some kind of quick note for the kids, words of encouragement, that would be awesome!!)

Spread the word!
Reblog this post on your blog. Tweet this post. (we're on twitter at #HSBookDrive) Tell everyone. Send books

UPDATE 7/23/11: I heard from Danielle that they've run out of room for books! THANK YOU to everyone who donated!!

8 comments:

Quelle Books said...

Thank you so much for alerting us of this. I sent a donation of some books & ARCs I had on hand. Everyone should have access to books!

Bellezza said...

Thanks for spreading the word. I'll look through my stacks and see what I have; every 'child'/student/teen needs as many books as they can have! XO

Jessica said...

The blog GuysLitWire did a book drive for this library too back in May. I sent in three books, and in total they received over 700 books. (http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2011/05/helping-ballou-sr-high-in-dc-build.html) Thanks for spreading the word, and hopefully they can receive even more help!

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

Awesome! What a great cause - prepping a package... be sure to give us an update :)

Zibilee said...

Oh, thank you for sharing this, Marie. I have quite I few I can send. Must put together a package!

Kathleen said...

Thank you for sharing the information about this very worthy cause.

Anna said...

Thanks for this post! Will have to see if I have anything to send.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to see what I have. I;m pretty sure all of my Shakespeare has writing in it :(