A colorful array of books lines a dusty shelf, ranging from kids’ picture books to young adult science fiction. The books are old, worn out, and faded from the sun, but the stories inside are as alive as ever, waiting to be plucked off by an eager young reader. With the newly formed organization Books for Brighter Futures, these books may be read once more.
Seeking to donate books to underprivileged communities, freshman Adhya Kottani, Clara Ganz, Brooke Ducharme, and Rachel Newman founded Books for Brighter Futures, a non-profit organization under WA Pride. After piloting their first meeting on Tuesday. Nov. 12 for interested volunteers, they hope to raise money and hold a book drive at nearby schools later this year, donating books to the African Literacy Project (ALP) and Up with Books, a Massachusetts based non-profit organization.
Their goal is to collect 1,000 books for ALP in order to build a library in Ghana, raising $650 in order to ship the books in May. The remainder of the books will go to Up with Books, providing underprivileged communities nearby with books.
Kottani, Ganz, Ducharme, and Newman were inspired to create their own organization after holding a book drive last year across Westford schools, collecting more than 8,000 donations for Up with Books. Seeing the success of their drive, especially at Day School, which donated up to half of the total books they collected, they decided to form their own organization to find more volunteers.
“It was just us four last year, and we could only do so much, but this year, since we’re a part of WA Pride, we have so much more potential. There’s more people in the club, so more books can be raised, and [we can collect at] more schools,” Newman said.
For the Books for Brighter Futures’ founders, organizing a book drive last year started as a way to give back to the local community. Over time, however, they decided to expand their sights to other places in the world in need of books.
“We’re definitely still going to support Up with Books, but we just wanted to expand our goals. The African Literacy Project along with Up with Books, they go well together and we can do both at once, especially [now that we’ve] created [our] organization,” Newman said. “We also wanted to support global literacy because most parts of America are, in general, more privileged than other countries.”
In order to ship the books to Ghana, they plan to raise money at the Holiday Bazaar, holding raffles consisting of items such as gift cards from Evviva Trattoria, 99 Restaurants, and Coco Nails, as well as selling merchandise like Starbucks tumblers. Later on, they plan on having a Chipotle fundraiser on March 11.
Between reaching out to potential sponsors and emailing schools for the book drive, Books for Brighter Futures’ founders feel as though they have grown significantly since last year. Not only have they formed closer-knit relationships, but they have also gained more experience and become more organized with their work.
“We try our best to meet outside of schools to really work through everything in detail because it’s a lot of work once you get committed to it, [but] it’s a very rewarding project,” Ganz said. “When your meeting goes well, it just feels good. I think we’re just trying to learn from [our experiences] and we’re constantly improving and adjusting.”
According to Kottani, the turnout at their first meeting, at around 30 people, proved to be very helpful in preparing for the Holiday Bazaar and the book drive. People were actively splitting into groups, emailing schools, organizing the raffle baskets, and making items that they will be selling. In the future, they hope to get people involved outside of the meetings, as well as recruit more upperclassmen to help with transporting and storing the books.
“I think once […] we’ve figured out where we’re doing book drives and how many donations we have, [the meetings will] definitely be a lot easier,” Kottani said. “I think we’re definitely […] going to keep the books for most of the year, so it’ll just be more organizing and people will be able to do more things outside of school.”
With their first meeting behind them, Books for Brighter Futures hopes to meet their goals for the year in order to continue growing as an organization, expanding their outreach to underprivileged communities.
“Those two non-profits have definitely given us a foundation in what we’re doing,” Newman said. “In the future, maybe [we could create] another library, or two libraries if we have enough people in our club and raise enough money.”
Books for Brighter Futures meets the second Tuesday of every month after school in room 238. Their next meeting will be next Tuesday, Nov. 26 to prepare for the Holiday Bazaar. Follow their instagram @booksforbrighterfutures_wa for more information.
