Thursday, December 30, 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Valentines Day shipment leaves for Ghana on Christmas

I.S.A.B.T. is proud to announce our 40 ft. shipping container loaded with over 35,000 library quality books has left the port of Oakland and is set to arrive in Ghana on Valentine’s day. All of the books have been carefully screened to ensure they are educational, relevant, and appropriate. These books will help thousands of students in Ghana who have no access to books or reading materials of any kind. We are working very closely with our partner schools in Ghana to ensure that these books are utilized to their maximum potential. Schools with no books to speak of, will now be able to house their own contemporary Libraries.
Have you ever wondered what shipping books to Africa entails? Well, let us tell you that it is not possible without a strong team of dedicated, passionate, and motivated volunteers.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing groups of helpers. Without their dedication, persistence, and strong backs a project like this would never have been possible.
2010 Book Drive Volunteers
DIANNE LYNCH
Dianne tirelessly packed boxes of San Jose Library book donations from 4:00 - midnight on a Saturday and then transported the 200 filled boxes by herself to street level for Sunday pickup.  She then rented and paid for a U-haul truck to transport the books to the shipping port. Dianne, her friend Michael, and Lisa Carbajal then loaded the U-haul and stored it for delivery to Oakland the next day. On Monday, Lisa and Dianne drove the loaded truck to Oakland and unloaded it at the shipping port.  Then, the next day, Lisa and Dianne drove to the San Francisco library and spent 12 hours packing, loading, and unloading, as well as putting together, the boxes. It took three trips from S.F. to Oakland in order to transfer all of the tens of thousands of books.
LISA CARBAJAL
Lisa put in tireless hours packing boxes on the weekend. Both she and Dianne took off Monday and Tuesday to pack, load, and unload the boxes of books.  Lisa has 3 children and had to make babysitting arrangements in order to help me.
RINAL SHAH
Rinal helped organize the difficult logistics of running a successful Book Drive. This included establishing and maintaining library and volunteer contacts and picking up donations from all over the Bay Area.
RICH BRAUGH
Rich helped promote our cause, raised money to cover the cost of the container, the boxes, and even paid for a volunteer pizza lunch.
MINTY HUYNH/ FOG VALLEY
Minty Huynh/ Fog Valley provided a truck on Tuesday to pack up books at S.F. Library.  She also held a Crab Feed fundraiser at her home to raise funds for the fuel needed for the truck.  She and 3 of her friends generously volunteered at the last minute because we needed more volunteers to help "pick and pack" books from the S.F. Library.
Amazing Packaging graciously sold us brand new shipping boxes at their cost.
UJENA generously donated their factory space as a Book Drop location and helped promote the Book Drive. Thanks to Justin Wall, Lisa Anderson-Wall, Ellie Eagles, Trisha Tompkins, and Julia Hittler for their assistance and support.

CAROL and PETER THURSTON, KRISTINE ERVING, and LINDA ROMLEY-IRVINE
Thanks to this group for combing the stacks, culling the very best books for our Ghanaian teachers and then specially packing them for delivery to classrooms in Ghana.
EVIE KREBS and LAURA LENT
Our wonderful connections at the San Francisco Library who gave us access to relevant, educational, and gently-used library books.
SAN JOSE MARTIN LUTHER KING LIBRARY
For donating thousands of quality books to our schools.
OUR WONDERFUL BOOK DONORS
A special thank you to all of the people who generously packed and donated their gently used books to our cause, like Sue Garadis, and Anne Cleaver.