2006.04.06: April 6, 2006: Headlines: Books: Service: Acorn Online: Darien Book Aid tries to answer 100 percent of Peace Corps requests
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2006.04.06: April 6, 2006: Headlines: Books: Service: Acorn Online: Darien Book Aid tries to answer 100 percent of Peace Corps requests
Darien Book Aid tries to answer 100 percent of Peace Corps requests
Darien Book Aid Plan Inc., housed in a former firehouse and barn, is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit book distribution center. Inside, organized by the Dewey decimal system, are thousands of books their previous owners lovingly read and found too precious to trash during spring cleaning. Peggy Minnis, who has filled Peace Corps requests for Book Aid since 1984, has received several letters of the past 22 years from young readers thanking her for changing their lives. "They can’t get over the concept that anyone in the U.S. would care enough about them to send books to them,” she said. “Free books, with beautiful pictures and nice words!” Minnis receives between two and four requests from Peace Corps volunteers each day. "We pretty much send them exactly what they want, and they are overjoyed,” she said.
Darien Book Aid tries to answer 100 percent of Peace Corps requests
Linking Darien to the world
By Jaclyn Trop
Caption: NOT JUST BROWSING — Barbara Gardner searches for books to fill an overseas order at Darien Book Aid on the Post Road. The volunteer-run orginization provides books to groups like the Peace Corps and others across the world. (Darien Times/Joshua Fisher photo)
Darien is in the hearts of readers in more than 180 countries.
“There was a Darien resident in the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and when he said, ‘I’m from Darien, Conn.,’ they went ‘Oh, we know Darien Book Aid!’ ” long-time volunteer Barbara Gardner said proudly.
Darien Book Aid Plan Inc., housed in a former firehouse and barn at 1926 Post Road, is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit book distribution center. Inside, organized by the Dewey decimal system, are thousands of books their previous owners lovingly read and found too precious to trash during spring cleaning.
Books are packed up and shipped off each year to between 80 and 100 countries, based upon requests from teachers, soldiers, and Peace Corps volunteers in those areas.
Postal M-Bags destined for such locales as Nigeria, Macedonia, the Republic of Georgia, Jamaica, Khazakstan, Madagascar, Morocco, and Ghana line the front entrance, waiting to be picked up by the post office.
“We try to answer 100 percent of our Peace Corps requests,” Gardner said. This amounts to nearly 1,000 requests and results in the shipment of over 1,000 boxes per year.
At one or two boxes a week, Ukraine receives the most books of any other country.
Gardner speculated the cause might be that Ukraine has the most Peace Corps volunteers, or “at least the most motivated ones.”
“They’re working hard to get up to speed with the rest of the world,” she said.
Books requested range from young adult chapter books to tomes on agriculture.
“I think there’s nothing better than picking up a letter from someone on the other side of the world and picking out the books they’ve asked for,” Gardner said. “This country is so wealthy. It’s something that we should all do.”
Filling certain requests can be a logistical challenge.
One letter from Macedonia asked for books about engineering, ecology, and computer science for 15 to 18 year olds reading at a fourth grade level.
Peggy Minnis, who has filled Peace Corps requests for Book Aid since 1984, has received several letters of the past 22 years from young readers thanking her for changing their lives.
“They can’t get over the concept that anyone in the U.S. would care enough about them to send books to them,” she said. “Free books, with beautiful pictures and nice words!”
Minnis receives between two and four requests from Peace Corps volunteers each day.
“We pretty much send them exactly what they want, and they are overjoyed,” she said.
Minnis, who has a doctorate in environmental science, was introduced to Book Aid by a neighbor who asked her to help organize the environmental science shelf.
“They said, ‘As long as you’re here, you might as well fill a couple of orders.’ That was 22 years ago,” she said.
Book Aid does not fulfill requests sent from individuals, but does donate locally to correctional institutions, juvenile detention centers, and food banks.
Several shipments have recently gone to New Orleans in efforts to build a new library.
Staffed by about 38 volunteers (“It’s easy to learn, flexible hours, and no specific time slots,” Gardner said”), Book Aid is constantly in search of more books and more help.
Children’s books and young adult chapter books are in demand among children and adults learning how to read English.
“We just don’t have the variety and the choices we’d like to give our volunteers,” Gardner said.
Book Aid does not receive many requests for popular novels, travel books, cookbooks, or outdated reference materials, such as a complete Encyclopedia Britannica set from 1988.
“We want to send the best books, things that look new, bright, and have nice pictures in them,” Gardner said. “We need enough inventory to be selective.”
Book Aid receives most of its books through drop-offs from area residents or through book drives at local schools. Donations spike between May and July, which spring cleaning reaches its height, Gardner said.
Founded in 1949 and fashioned after the Marshall Plan, Book Aid began as a vehicle through which reading material could be sent to war-ravaged Europe. Requests used to arrive by letter, which volunteers answered with a post card indicating the shipment of a bag of books, which usually arrived two to six months later.
Although some still arrive by regular mail, an increasing amount of communication is performed over e-mail, a testament to the increasing technological advancement around the world.
E-mail has also enabled Book Aid to cut down on postage expenses.
Gardner estimated that total operation costs run less than $60,000 per year. Eighty percent of the budget, or about $800 per week, goes towards postage.
“We’re able to do all that we do because it’s all by volunteers,” said Gardner, who spends between six and eight hours each week filling requests and organizing books.
It’s a small price to pay for the huge rewards the volunteers reap.
One letter from a Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan last month thanked Minnis for transforming lives in the small community.
“The Darien books have had a tremendous impact on my students — motivating them, teaching them responsibility, and giving them opportunities for self-study they’ve never had before,” the volunteer wrote. “My students devour one book after another.”
Up next for Kyrgyzstan? A grant to buy bookshelves.
For information on how you can help Darien Book Aid Plan Inc., call 655-2777 or visit dba.darien.org.
© Copyright 2006 by Hersam Acorn newspapers
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Story Source: Acorn Online
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