the non-profit community activates - our project continues

The word is passing around the net about what the "improvements" in the postal rate structure means to many of us dealing with foreign schools and teachers. The elimination of the surface transportation has more than tripled the cost of sending stuff oversea, particularly for those of us who sent books/educational material. Sending full container is one thing, but sending 50 pound boxes is something else entirely.

Luckily for "A Thousand Books" our country of service is Romania and there are economical shipping options available to us that most countries don't have, so we can carry on virtually without change.

As far as that goes, we have been trying to raise a bit of cash recently.

* A group of musicians who host a weekly "open-mic" night are allowing us to take donations at the door in lieu of free admission during May and June. We should raise enough there to fund a nice school library.
* A local talkshow host has a rock&roll band (seems common from those guys) and gave us a percentage of the receipts from a show they did.
* The local Romanian Orthodox church is allowing me to solicit its members to fund another school under our "Adopt-a-teacher" program (and I'm asking the local Greek Orthodox church to follow suit.
* I sent out a mailing to all the local Wal-Marts asking for contributions. They award small grants to approved local charities. So far no responses.
* I applied to a local grocery store that has a Wishing Well program. They finally met with me and it seems they may give us a month on their calendar.
* A wine bar and the local Romanian wine distributor is hosting a benefit wine-tasting with entertainment provided by the three Romanian-born members of the symphony.

money raised and the Post Office throws a curve

In the past two weeks we have collected about $800 from a series of sources. It's enough for "a shipment" from Chicago to PCVs in Romania for our Primary Project. Excellent!

Our latest and greatest marketing idea is to "Adopt A Peace Corp Volunteer." Though much of our fund-raising will stay generic to accomodate the entire PCV list that we have, we will ask certain groups of individuals to adopt a specific teacher at a specific school from the incoming Group 22. Personalizing the process should make the experience a little more intense for both sides.

I anticipate providing additional materials to the adopted PCVs and I will be requestiing that they pay special attention to providing photos and official thanks to the sponsors. It means one volunteer might get nine boxes of books and another might get only three. But I am confident it will be a success in the long run.

Ou focus, has by necessity shrunken to providing books almost exclusively to Romania. "For the convenience of the customer" the Post Office has ceased providing surface service and sends only by air. Air is almost three and a half times more expensive. So, as proper stewards of our resources we have to decide whether use, say $50 to send thirteen pounds of books to 'whereever' or fifty pounds of books to Romania. The answer to 13 vs. 50 is obvious.

Of course we have books to give to those who provide postage, but most won't see the value.

container is filled, the primary project continues

Since my last post I have made four more trips to the storage facility and finalized adding books to the last pallet. The collection aspect of the container project is essentially finished. I am continuing to use small boxes to set aside a pallet-worth of boxes that I will toss into the freespace of the container as it is loaded. Depending on how tight the load is I may get another 80 or 100 boxes in the container.

There is a blip in the road on the fund-raising front so if you are a praying person, say a few for us. It would be truly sad if 30,000 books intended for Romania didn't get there.

The primary project continues as I am doing my first in-your-face fund-raising blitz.

I did an event a couple weeks ago near a local uniuversity with the help of an RPCV that raised about $250. The next one will be this Saturday. We will get a piece of 'the door' at a concert performance by a local radio personality's band.

The unique event coming up is a 'up-scale' wine-tasting affair. I'm over my head on this and can only hope for the best. I'm accustomed to rock & roll events where it's simply "band plays for free and I get the cover charge." I don't know how the wine & cheese event will work out, but the local Romanian wine distributor is 'in,' as are the three Romanian-born musicians from the local symphony. "Romanian + Romanians for Romanian kids" at least gives us a good hook.

Besides these events I have a few others in the works, as I attempt to build a cash reserve for the new PCVs this Fall.

another book-crazy weekend

Saturday saw the success of getting about 15 boxes of books and highlighted the disappointment that sometimes happens in what is essentially a one-man operation.

While I was distracted elsewhere someone grabbed 2 boxes of chapter books I had set aside and someone else got the 32-volume 1997 Encyclopedia Britannica. That was a huge dissappointment.

And with Sunday came 14 more boxes, bringing the total to 90% of the goal.

Today was the famed Book Fair and we got about 35 boxes of books from them to add to the pile. I was assisted by a very nice lady who help pick and package the books and sat with them as I took the first load to the storage facility.

I'll take the load from the high school tomorrow.

It looks like another 5 or 6 major loads will finish off the project.

I'm hoping to involve a Chicago shipper in sharing costs and smoothing the way into Constanta.

25

I'm sick but found a surprise...

My cold/flu has me feeling like poop, but I made it out to get books.

I got about fifteen boxes from the high school, A good mix of adult and kids' books. And on the way there I found a surprise book sale that netted another ten unexpected boxes of books.

There was some bad news today. I've heard the Post Office is restructuring some of it's services and getting rid of M-Bag Surface Mail. Presumably M-Bag Air Mail will remain, but it's more expensive. More to follow.

dodged a bullet and another book source

After I dropped off the most recent stack of boxes of books I rearranged the pallets and I see we're rounding the bend and going into the stretch. I can see finishing the book-collection aspect of this project in the next couple of weeks. We'll be finished by the first of June, I'm sure.

I seem to have caught a bug working in that warehouse. I hope my flu shot holds up, but it doesn't look good.

However, there was some bad news/good news.

After I left the storage facility I headed to the Book Fair to nail down the details of charity day. I heard a clunk!! from the back of my pick-up and then a sharp bang-bang-bank-bang as I was driving down the highway. I looked to see if the straps had come loose from my load (they hadn't) and then I slowed to a stop. I looked underneath and didn't see anything dragging or missing and nothing leaking. But the noise persisted.

I spotted a Chevrolet dealer's sign and nursed it there where the guy said it could be the transmission or U-joint, both expensive proposals. He climbed under and found a piece of my tie-down strap wrapped around my drive shaft. He cut it away and sent me on my way without charge. Amazing!!

Between the car dealer and the book fair I saw a sign for another book sale at a church. I stopped and chatted with a guy there and he says I can help myself when the sale is over. I hinted at the need for money, too. I'll make a pitch next week.

I need to start fundraising on the primary mission, sending kids' books to Peace Corps grade school teachers. That financial cupboard is bare.

22

more and more...

Work today resulted in twenty-five boxes of books to be transported tomorrow. There are some amazing volumes. Some had me laughing as I thought about people finding them in Romanian libraries.

I got word from the high school that they'll loan me a couple students to help pack books and that I'll be able to leave them in the school gym until Tuesday, because the storage facility won't be open on the weekend.

I made a pitch to the Greek Orthodox Church priest to have the parish adopt a village school and supply English books to create a library. I'm hoping they do it to match the library the Romanian Orthodox church will be creating.

the mood is elevated...

This week seems to be going very well. A local high school is having a big book sale this Saturday and one of the entire region's biggest book sales winds up on Sunday. On top of that, one of my used book store contacts has offered me more choice books from his basement stash. Not only that, next weekend is another large sale.

Also the American contact in Focsani tells me that they are confident they will have the money to pay for the container.

I'm also negotiating to share a 40' container so we can send 20' of books pro-rated at the 40' price. It should trim the cost a bit, if it comes through.

they say it'll snow tonight?

The project has been quiet lately, with no word on funding. This always has me a bit concerned as I am worried about sitting on 20000 books and no money to send them.

The book collection has been a bit slow lately, as I wait for several book fairs. I'm nibbling at the warehouse of books, sorting out a few boxes here and there. In the past week, I've taken about 40 boxes of books to the storage facility and completely rearranged the pallets in anticipation of the 3 major events coming up.

The collecting process should be absolutely finished by mid-June. If the money comes through the books should be on-site by early September.

I don't know what the guy at the storage facility will do if I don't have the books out by then. I have nowhere to put them, they'll just be thrown away.

21

more than they expected...

Chicago was a reasonable success. The drive was long, but uneventful. I finally remembered how to avoid the city center and went to the hostel to register. After lunch with a friend I found out the books couldn't be sent away until Friday. I cruised all the thrift stores just looking around and buying an occasional book to fill out incomplete sets. I had dinner in a nice Romanian restaurant.

The best news is that I sent off about 600 pounds of books to seven Peace Corps sites throughout Romania. I wasn't able to meet any of my Romanian friends in Chicago, so I wasn't able to line up any support at this time for future shipments.

I did try to hit a couple book sales while I was there, but the one big one regretably wasn't closing until the next day and had arranged for disposal in anay case. But they did generously give me a few boxes of good books that their salvage man told them were useless for him.

Back in St. Louis this past weekend was very slow with only a single box of books gathered.
I chatted with one of the guys at the donated storage facility and found out he thought I was only going to store three or four pallets. In my mind I was very clear I would be filling a 20' container. ooops.... The floor footprint I need is about six times that and I'll need it for about 3 or 4 more months.

carrying on...

My book gathering takes a pause as I prepare for taking a small shipment of books to Chicago for dispatch to sites in Romania. One volunteer's family was particularly generous and almost a quarter of this batch is going to him to fulfill what we promised him. His village school will particularly pleased. Books will actually be spread over the whole country. Suceava, Galati, Timis, Oradea...

After I get back I will follow-up on some calls and set up a couple of book gathering opportunities. While in Chicago I will visit at least one library sale and a church rummage sale.

quiet day

I made a couple phone calls trying to line-up a couple rummage sales. I found two, many miles apart. If I can't find someone to help I'll have to choose which one might give the most books.

I used the day to get more empty boxes for books. It was hard to find enough of a uniform size (to make stacking, storage and shipping easier), but I soon discovered that 12-to-a-box motor oil boxes are small enough not the be too heavy and plentiful at all the chain auto parts stores. I think I finally have enough boxes to do the job. I have 300+ of them sorted and stacked and ready to fill with books.

An interesting thing... In the warehouse-o-books I found a case of books authored by a prominent local radio personality. I called his producer and offered them to him before they hit the landfill. I'm hoping his gratitude will shine as he offers to help me raise some shipping costs. I doubt it, but I'm hoping.

the weather gets warmer...

Last Saturday was a neighborhood book sale and the woman who ran it was most helpful. She waited around an hour or so after everyone else went home so I could load up.

Sunday I was invited to a local church and gave a talk to a bunch of retirees during their monthly dinner/meeting. It went pretty well, but I don't know what the result will be. I now ruminate that I missed the opportunity to ask them for prayer.

Monday I ran a couple more loads in my pick-up - totalling maybe 40 boxes - to the storage facility. I alternate between confidence in the project and thoughts of "why isn't this pile of boxes growing faster?"

I worked with a new local bookseller, helping him in his warehouse, sorting his stuff. There isn't much that would be useful for the project so far. I've been working so hard at the other guy's place that he ran out of empty boxes.

The next couple of days I'll spend on the primary project of getting several small batches ready for shipment.

18

bad and (potentially) great news

I got a late start on my day of warehousing. I showed up only to find the door locked! grrrr.... It seems someone accidentally locked it. The owner says he'll arrange a key to keep it from happening again.

On a good note, a highly respected local bookseller shuttered his doors a couple years ago as his warehouse district gentrified beyond his budget. I found the guy who's sitting on all the unsold stuff and he loves the idea of the books being put to good use, but insists I must take thousands of them. hoo-rah!! Now I just have to get a look at them to assure they'll be useful.

And I have an appointment tomorrow with a club owner about doing some benefit shows to help with shipping costs on my primary project.

warming up...

The weather broke and the warehouse 'o' books is no longer mind-numbingly frigid, it's merely damn cold. I was able to scrape enough books together to do run to the storage place and on my return stacked up enough boxes to do it again tomorrow morning.

I chatted with my Girl Scout contact and the request to do a book drive with them is still meandering up the chain of command. grrrr....

16

better dressed . . .

Two pairs of socks, two long-sleeved shirts, insulated undershirt, a sweatshirt and a jacket and work boots... Yeah, almost enough clothes. Three and a half hours and 10 boxes of books later I stopped for the day.

The high point of the day was the time I spent killing time while I waited for the guy with the key to the building to show up. I drove around and picked up a small stack of empty boxes for future use.

cold as hell...

Apparently I now have free access to the old-book warehouse now without the owner present. The locked door will remain open for the time being, leaving me with access to dozens upon dozens upon dozens of pallets of books. Unfortunately, the two pallets I worked up were virtually devoid of anything useful. I got a late start and tomorrow I'll give it another shot. This time I'll have to dress appropriately as the place is totally unheated and it's 10 degrees outside. brrrrr......

books for Sibiu

We received a rather large contribution for the benefit of a grade school in Sibiu. Today I sent off 4 boxes (106 pounds) of books.

progress and less paperwork needed

I surprised the guy at Left Bank Books with the speed that I sorted and boxed his second group of accumulated discards. I was half done in just 2 hours. With the books I got from Subterranean Books I rounded out another load to take to storage. On the way it started raining. I covered the boxes with a tarp. They predict 5 inches of snow.

I spent some more time measuring pallets and graphing a floor plan for the container, as I am so far along in the process I don't want any wasted time and effort on loading day. An 8'x8'x20' mountain of books will be substantial. I just laughed at the enormity of this essentially one-man project.

My PC-Ro colleague continues to work on his end researching and establishing what we both need to do - and hopefully finding success in raising the money. Apparently the certification of patrimony is not necessary (my theory is they think "how can books from such a new place - America - have historic value?" LOL), but I think I'm going to cobble one together, just for fun and send it back with the official invitation they do need. And it seems Romanian customs laws will continue to let books in without duty.

I've decided to try to work out being in Romania the accept the container as it arrives. Once the container is sent off they say I'll be told the ship name, captain's name, and transit progress along with scheduled date of arrival.

14

a new source, and more books from an old one

I finally got through to another used bookstore and they allowed me to take a few stacks of books they had set aside for the book fair. They allowed me to take what I could use as long as I got rid of all of them. I grabbed about 10 boxes for the container and passed another 10 along.

And I stopped by the other book store and their charity pile has resprouted to its original size and there will be a couple days work for me next week going through them.

And finally, the guy with the building full of books says he's going to give me a key so I can go through them without him being there. Yeah, it's to get my free labor for boxing the books we can't use, but I'm getting 20% ratio on the books I've gone through so far, so as long as I have the time it'll be good.

the day is summer-like compared to yesterday

I 've been invited to speak to a small church group as the speaker at their monthly dinner. I went there this past Sunday to check out this month's speaker and see how I might format myself. The speaker was a local poet. I sat through his reading and asked a few questions. Afterwards I introduced myself and gave him a card. He called the next day and offered a few of his "printer's seconds." I said it would be wonderful and asked for him to give an introduction to contacts at his job. He works for the Boy Scouts of America.

Another trip to the storage warehouse with books. I remeasured the pallets to see how they might fit in the container to plan ahead, as they are not all the same size. Now I have to mind the size pallets I take so they will even out.

There are no further book opportunities, save that warehouse of unsorted used books. I'll go there again this Friday and get what I can. With the books I have stacked there already I hope to have 15-20 boxes by the weekend.

a freezing afternoon

I finally hooked-up with the warehouse guy. I spent the afternoon in his dingy, freezing work area sorting through books. The deal is I can take what I want as long as I box up my rejects so he can wholesale them out. The ratio I hit was 4 boxes of rejects (for him) to 1 box of books for me. It's not high enough for my liking, but it's something to get a few more good books.

I went to a local county library having a small book fair. They have several in the winter as they rev-up for their massive June sale. I tried to get access to their unsold books. They keep them for the June sale, but I laid the groundwork and explained the container project.

Hopefully, by June I'll have virtually all the books I need to fill the container and what I get from them will be cream on the top. I am counting on this sale and the May book fair here to finish off the project. Between those two events I should be able to get the final 10% of the necessary books, if they are still needed.

I got a message from a friend in Bucharest about a Rotary Club in Maine that sent a 20-foot container of books (apparently) to Ramnicu Valcea. I e-mailed them with info about this program and asked for an introduction to local Rotarians to ask whatever assistance they might offer.

Tonight I'll visit a church to scope out the format they use for their monthly speakers' presentation, as I am invited to speak next month.

I've been told that word of the book project is passing around a local university and there may be some interest. Also a local high may sign on.

good news, bad news, good news

good news - I dropped off the twelfth load of books at the warehouse yesterday. Without hesitation I declare the project half finished on my side.

bad news - More, and more complicated, paperwork is necessary on the Romanian side.

good news - Some guy has given me free run of a small warehouse full of unsorted, used books. The only price is some sweat equity.

:-(

Oh, those well-meaning people who insist their musty, water-stained Readers' Digest Condensed Books would be a perfect addition to any modern library and are soooooo disappointed when I say thanks, but no thanks.

TGIF

Today I met a local high school principal socially and she seemed very interested in helping and will pass the info along to her head librarian.

I met-up with a local Girl Scout leader and she's going to make a pitch to the local GS Council.

I dropped off some literature at the local Orthodox church and asked if one of the youth groups might want to become involved.

And last, but not least, I took another load of books to the warehouse.

it's fun watching the pallets grow

I dropped off another load of accumulated books at the warehouse. As I count it, I need 10 tall pallets and 10 short ones to make the load. I'm working on the 7th tall one now.

I visited a local high school, requesting that some of our literature be given to the appropriate staff member. I'll stop again in a couple days to follow-up.

I stopped off and talked with a guy at a warehouse I stumbled on. His wife sells books on the net and has a LOAD of stuff she considers junk. The husband says she wants me to take it all, but I can't commit to that, even if I had space to work in, as I didn't even get a look at the stuff.

I confirmed I can slough off the stuff I don't want to the local Y for their book fair in the fall so now I have negotiating ammo. Wish me luck as the pile looks HUGE.

------------------------

F.Y.I. Anyone shipping things internationally should be aware of the requirements if they decide to use wooden pallets.

I always intended to pre-palletize the container-load of books as I went along because I had not intention of floor-loading 20,000 pounds of freight at one time and I have no idea of the manpower I'd have available when I reached my goal. I figured either 10 pallets, each loaded 7 feet high or 20 pallets each loaded halfway and stacked on top of each other.

I planned on grabbing scrap pallets as they are commonly found around almost any loading dock or industrial site. However, a shipping company tipped me to the fact that all international requirements cite that all wood pallets must meet ISPM 15 standards.

I was throughly confused until I found an example of the certification logo online and found some pallets with it. It looks like the graphic here and is branded onto a couple places on the wood. The top letters are the country of manufacture and the manufacturer. The bottom letters indicate the method used (HT = heat treated). The logo on the left is imperitive.

Without it, the shipment could be refused and returned and you'll be on the hook for all fees and penalties and if you don't take the stuff back it could be destroyed and you'd STILL be on the hook for ALL costs.

As I searched the stacks I found laying around dock areas I noted that only 1 in 20 or so is easily found and sometimes the company won't allow you to take them. A sharp eye and nose should be able to find a good source, as I ultimately did.

two stores cleaned out

With another two loads of books I have essentially cleaned out the basements of two used book stores.

Today I met with a little girl's mom. We chatted and the daughter will be doing a neighborhood/family book drive to earn some sort of award at school.

The writer of the article told me his church wants to have a book drive.

two more trips, thirty more boxes

The pile grows a bit larger with thirty boxes added today and another 15 or so boxes scheduled for tomorrow.

The Book House

As I walked out of my place I thought someone stole 2 boxes of books off my pick-up. I was pretty perturbed until I realized I didn't quite finish my work last night. I finished up those boxes and took them to the warehouse.

The dock door was blocked and I had to move the boxes by hand from one pallet to another. The stack is starting to look significant, though by no means near finished.

After I dropped them off I went back to the basement of The Book House and continued packing up books they're letting me have. A surprising find is a huge pile of recent science-fiction magazines. I hope there are some sci-fi fans hungry for the English language. I'll have them cleaned out by next week. I should ultimately get 40 boxes oe so from them.

I received thank-you e-mails from Timisoara, Onesti, Bals and Recas. The books sent as part of our primary work recently arrived. More acknowledgements should be coming shortly.

"Ten Tons of Tomes"

The container project is a go. Jason, the Peace Corps volunteer at Biblioteca Judeteana “Duiliu Zamfirescu” Focsani is helping to organize the project from their side of the pond.

(The photos to the right are examples of what I will be doing.)

It's the responsibility of those who will most benefit from the project to raise the money to pay for the transportation costs. With the import taxes/fees, shipping costs and incidental expenses - said incidental expenses fronted by yours truly, now a pensioner - it will probably amount to $4000 for a 20 ft. shipping container.

I finally found warehouse space through a local Greek Orthodox Church and I can move on moving accumulated books, as well as additional ones there. The big pain is my pick-up will only haul about 600 lbs. maximum and the warehouse is a 50 mile round trip. I need to find a small trailer nearby that I can borrow from time to time. So far I've made 4 trips with another planned for tomorrow.

In addition to the accumulated books I've been storing, I've found 2 used book stores that are enthusiastically allowing me to raid their basements and a publishing insider who will be provider a pile of "advance copies" from the last couple years.

The newspaper article drew some small book donations and perhaps 2 or 3 offers to host small book drives. I have requests in to other used bookstores to cull unsold stuff.

I'm also planning a trip to Chicago at the beginning of March to send off another batch of books towards the primary project of books for the other PCVs throughout Romania.