Wednesday, May 15, 2019

For the Love of Literacy

Between February and April this spring, Phi Kappa Phi held its sixth annual Book Drive Competition. As part of the contest, 18 chapters across the country hosted drives to collect as many books as possible for an organization of their choice.

The book drives were held at both colleges and universities nationwide. Beneficiary organizations chosen by the chapters ranged from schools and libraries to other community organizations such as tutoring and mentoring programs, correctional centers and more. In all, the participating chapters collected more than 10,000 books and $461 in monetary donations.

The winning chapters whose drives collected the most donations were:
  • Western Illinois University
  • Texas A&M University - Kingsville

“I am extremely proud of our two student vice presidents, Carina Villarreal and Kayla Canales, for organizing our first-ever Spring Book Drive,” said Chapter President Dr. Susan Roberson. “I would also like to mention the generosity of the students and faculty of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, who dug into their pockets to pull out a dollar, some change, whatever they had. The fact that we were able to raise so much money to provide books and literacy materials for the Kingsville Housing Authority Youth Center speaks volumes about the caring nature of our university community.”

The winning chapters will be eligible to receive either a “Little Free Library” to be placed at a location of their choice or a waived registration fee to attend the upcoming Student Leadership Summit in summer 2019. The Little Free Library is a freestanding box where anyone can donate and borrow books in an effort to promote literacy throughout communities—a prize that fits well with the Society’s love of learning and literacy.

Other Phi Kappa Phi chapters that hosted a book drive as part of the competition include Arkansas State University; Bloomsburg University; Caldwell University; California State University, Sacramento; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Florida Institute of Technology; Georgia Southern University; Ithaca College; Louisiana State University; Methodist University; Nicholls State University; Texas A&M University – Commerce; Texas Woman's University; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of Maryland University College; and University of South Alabama.

Since its creation in 2014, Phi Kappa Phi’s annual book drive competition has donated more than 55,000 books to organizations both locally and abroad.

To see all the photos from this year’s book drives, click here.

Photo provided by Susan Roberson – Texas A&M University – Kingsville students participating in the 2019 Book Drive include, from left, Carina Villarreal, Dustyn Naldoza, and JuLong Zhao.

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