WE NEED TO MOUNT NUMEROUS BOOK DRIVES IN ST. LOUIS - CALL TO HELP - 314-255-9035
_____________________________________________________________________________ http://southsidejournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/01/03/news/sj2tn20070102-0103ssj_1000.ii1.txt Group puts on push to deliver 7 tons of books to Romania By Jim Merkel An organization that has delivered 8,000 pounds of books to English language students in Romania in the last three years is about to redouble its efforts. The group, called A Thousand Books, wants to deliver a 20-foot shipping container full of books to Romania by July. That's about 14,000 pounds of novels, non-fiction, poetry, biographies and how-to books. That's nearly twice the number of books collected and sent to Romania since 2003 by the organization. To fill the container, says A Thousand Books founder and director John Korst, the group will contact organizations, schools and anyone else who might be interested in aiding Romanians to learn English. In the past, the group has sent individual boxes to Romania, said Korst, who lives in the Holly Hills Neighborhood. "I've long wanted to do a big project, a container of books," Korst said. "Because this is so many books, I need a lot of them doing book drives for me." A Thousand Books distributes books through Peace Corps volunteers who work in schools and libraries. "The English language is very important in the international community," said Korst, who offered several examples. A Romanian girl whom Korst knows was on vacation when she met a German girl. Though neither one knew the other's language, they both knew English and spoke it to each other. A German bank doing business in Romania put out a memo saying if employees wanted to advance in their careers, they should learn English, Korst said. "Reading is one of the greatest ways of building a vocabulary," Korst said. "It's good for America to develop this friendship with this country." The books will be delivered to about nine county libraries in Romania. "The libraries themselves probably will have some books," Korst said. "They won't have the quantity that we will be able to provide them." To find libraries to receive the books, a Peace Corps volunteer in August went to a national conference of Romanian librarians and distributed fliers offering the books. The shipping container will hold about 20,000 books, Korst estimates. In the last three years, the group has sent over about 12,000 books, or around 8,000 pounds. A Thousand Books is being helped by a "Bridging Communities Partnership Award" that Korst received in December from the Round Table Society in Chicago, a group of Romanian-Americans. Korst will have more time for the volunteer effort because he is retiring from the Post Office. The whole project will cost about $4,000, but books are needed more than money, Korst said. While some books will be available from the leftovers from book fairs, that won't be enough, Korst said. Other groups are needed to collect books, he said. Korst is available to speak to organizations about what a drive might entail. For more information, call 314-255-9035 or go to www.AThousandBooks.us. http://southsidejournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/01/03/news/sj2tn20070102-0103ssj_1000.ii1.txt ================================================ ______________________________ My YouTube film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqLtIn_LhcY ______________________________ click here: but I might be "Invisible" ______________________________ my Yahoo Groups: groups.yahoo.com/group/We_Love_Romania groups.yahoo.com/group/AThousandBooks __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
