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.