Kiwanis volunteers help pack books March 4-5 for shipment to African libraries. Courtesy/Kiwanis
KIWANIS News:
The Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos has proven once again that while service projects may be a bit more difficult during a pandemic – they are certainly not impossible.
March just happens to be National Reading Month, so very small groups of 4-5 volunteers spread way out at the Sarah McLaughlin Hall at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on Canyon Road to pack books, books and more books March 4-5 for the African Library Project.
Book donations have been steady and high all throughout the pandemic as people are staying home and cleaning out! Barranca Mesa School librarian, Erin Manzanares, generously donated hundreds of books that wouldn’t fit into the new school library, which has less shelf space than the old library.
Five school libraries of 1200 books each were shipped to Kenya during January but “I packed all those myself while trying to isolate”, Sharon Allen said, coordinator of the project which has been ongoing in Los Alamos for the past 5 years. “It really is a job in which ‘many hands make light(?) work, so when the opportunity arose to get some help from my Kiwanis colleagues, I jumped at the offer!”
Hauling the many, many boxes of donated books to the packing site was only possible because of the help of my son Ben and a Kiwanis volunteer Don Casperson. Two libraries of packed books (36 boxes) were taken immediately to the Los Alamos Post Office for shipping to Botswana. The many additional boxes of books that were packed will be sent to schools in Malawi and Lesotho in the next few months.
Fun fact: Since the fall of 2016, the Los Alamos community has provided the books and shipping funds for 68 school libraries (about 75,000 books!) all over Africa. This project is ongoing and donations to fund shipping are always needed.
To make a donation, contact Cheryl Pongratz of Kiwanis at Cheryl@losalamos.com or Sharon Allen at allenfamily926@gmail.com.
Thank you Los Alamos citizens for helping make reading FUN and books accessible to Africa’s children!
Children in Africa reading books donated by Los Alamos citizens. Retired Los Alamos teacher Sharon Allen in partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos has continued the mission of supporting African libraries through the African Library Project. Courtesy/Kiwanis
