Hello everyone,
I am so proud of what The Library Project has accomplished over the past three months. We have far exceeded The Library Project's goals and expectations. There is so much to share - from an incredible list of elementary schools that have benefited from new libraries to how you can get involved in helping to improve the lives of China’s rural children.
Before we start sharing our successes, I would like to talk about how The Library Project is providing assistance to those that have been affected by the recent earthquake in China. On May 12, 2008 China experienced a 7.9 earthquake in the Sichuan Province. 70,000 people died, and over five million people were left homeless because of this disaster. It is projected that thousands of elementary schools have been damaged in the Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will continue to do what we do best by providing books and libraries to elementary schools and orphanages as they are rebuilt or repaired through our 2008 Earthquake Program. To learn more about this program, please click here.
Over the past three months The Library Project created twenty-five libraries in rural elementary schools throughout China. More than thirty thousand books were donated with each school receiving a wide range of high quality children’s books including: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, reference books and comics. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for older students and pinyin language books for the kids beginning to learn to read. The Library Project also provided colorful child-safe tables and chairs, posters and a world globe to all the classrooms and library rooms.
These fabulous new libraries are located throughout China in the countrysides of the Shaanxi, Anhui, and Gansu Provinces. At each site, The Library Project held book drives, which collected over thirty thousand quality second-hand books from local donors. We also purchased over ten thousand first-hand books from Xin Hua Books Stores at just $1 a book.
In addition to books and supplies, the school librarians received training on how to manage their new library. Since most rural elementary schools have never had a single book in their library for children to read, our Librarian Training Program gets them up to speed on day one.
The Library Project are very hapt to anounce that Scott Perkins has joined our Board of Directors. Scott is President and CEO of Conectify Networks based out of San Francisco, California. I am honored to have him a part of our growing team. To learn more about Scott, please click here.
In addition to providing libraries to twenty-five elemenary schools in rural China, we have had over twenty small events since March. Most of these events were put on by volunteers that wanted to give back. Such as Celia, who put on an all woman's wine tasting that raised enough funds for one library. Siok Siok Tan has been doing charity screenings of Boomtown Beijing, her recent documentary on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sophia organized two incredible events in Shanghai at Kommune (great BBQ) and the Glamour Bar which was a lecture on rural education in China. I also would like to thank everyone that came out to our San Francisco, Phoenix and New Jersey events. We raised enough for seven libraries during that USA fundraising run! Thank you everyone!
We need your help.
There are three ways to get involved:
Help by spreading the word. You can forward this newsletter to your friends, family members and coworkers. Make a post on your MySpace page, blog to help raise awareness for The Library Project, or join our Facebook Group by clicking here. You can also host a small event at your home, work or at a local restaurant with a goal of raising enough money to provide fifty, two hundred or five hundred books for the children of a rural elementary school. If you need help organizing a fundraiser, please contact me anytime at tom@library-project.org. Thank you!
Help by volunteering. You can make a huge difference in the lives of countless children in the developing world by becoming a volunteer. There are so many different ways to volunteer: you can throw a wine tasting or dinner to introduce The Library Project to others, hang a poster above the water cooler at your office, or introduce us to your company’s HR Department.
Help by making a donation. Without money, we can't buy books. At a dollar a book, most of us can afford to buy 10, 20 or even 100 books. Make a donation and help bring the gift of education to countless children. Our libraries generally contain about 500 - 1000 books, thus every donated book (or dollar) helps!
Lastly, please check out some of our new products. We created 50 book, 100 book, 250 book and 500 book gift cards available at $1 a book. Each card also has a beautiful picture of a past library we have donated. The gift cards are a perfect gift idea. To check out our online store, please click here.
The Library Project is a non-profit organization. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Thank you in advance for your kind support of our efforts.
Sincerely,
Tom Stader
The Library Project
Founder |
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images? Please click here.
Thank you!
