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Book Bus News
Traffic lights change to Green for Book Appeal
16 January 2012
Congratulations to Diane Maybey for coordinating our "Book in Every Hand" appeal and achieving our targets of 5,000 donated books and the £2,000 shipping payment in only 4 months! Our shipping deadline is still a month away (14th February 2012) and Diane is determined to add to her mountain of books so please keep sending them in . . it's not too late and wouldn't it be great to reach 6,000 or even 7,000 books?
Read Diane's latest news below:
A Magical Week
"I've had the most magical, magical week...
Monday – 1,500 books arrived from children's author Andee Georgiou. The books are filled with information about the moon, the stars and how children relate to such universal matters. Delightful! Thank you Andee. Twinkle twinkle. www.grandeepress.com
Tuesday – There was a knock on the cottage door and Meg Harper, another children's author gave us hundreds of her books. I started reading 'My Mum and the Green-eyed Monster' and couldn't put it down, but reluctantly I made myself, no time for stoppy stoppy at the moment, it's super busy. Thank you Meg I send you a shooting star. www.megharper.co.uk
Wednesday – I received an email from the Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan temple in London, their community have collected over 3,000 books for our appeal. 3,000 books! Moons and balloons that's a jolly big effort, thank you ever so much!
Thursday – Kelly the Book Bus leader in Zambia was visiting. We had a lovely time. She is inspirational. Kelly and I were able to catch up on all the projects and get a huge amount of work done. We went to Park Hill Primary school in Kenilworth where the pupils had collected over 300 books. We gave an assembly to share stories about Zambia. The pupils were very kind and welcoming. I look forward to sharing stories back from Zambia when your books are given out. How exciting!
Friday – My week ends with a touching story. Emily Hammer, a pupil from Kings High in Warwick had contacted me last week as she wanted to donate some of her books. Each morning on her way to school she would discreetly leave a pile of books on the doorstep and I've yet to catch up with her to say thank you. I was chatting to some other girls from Kings High and Emily has created a bit of a buzz, so I wonder how many more little piles of books will be left on my doorstep! Thank you Emily and thank you girls.
Fund-raising – The books are essential and the fund-raising supports us to cover the costs of shipment and rolling out the project. This week the project has received funds raised from Godolphin and Latymer School, Barbara Egglesfield, Warwick School library Icknield Community College, and we received our first Just Giving donation on the website. Absolutely brilliant.
We've done it again! Yippee!
I am delighted that we've reached the two targets. We've over 5,000 books and have raised the £2,000 to cover shipment costs. So let's up the anti and try for 10,000 books and continue fund-raising to support the project. Imagine being able to give an extra 5,000 children their very own book!
Help me...
As you can imagine I have a lot of books to now sort and pack. If anyone is available to help then I would really appreciate this?!? I'm as dizzy as a ballerina on a roundabout but very friendly. Can you get in contact if this is a possibility?
And my last note after this very busy but magical week is thank you, so much. Your support is really helping the Book Bus to 'improve children's lives one book at a time.'
Sparkling dancing stars!
Diane
Our Book Drive for Zambia moves up a gear
The Book Bus “Book in Every Hand” Appeal for Zambia 2012 has been launched and already we have collected over 3,000 books. We are now over half-way to reaching our target of 5,000 books by our deadline on 01 March 2012 which is great news. Appeal coordinator Diane Maybey relates the latest news from the Book Loft:
I received two special gifts for the Book Bus this Christmas...
On the Monday just before Christmas I arrived at the office to find two enormous, honestly absolutely enormous palettes, filled to the brim with children's books – each palette was three times the width of me and up to my waist. I haven't counted all of the books yet but there must be over 2,500 and I spent two days carrying them up the steps to the office. I was absolutely chuffed to bits. When I phoned Gavin Hardy at Better World Books to say thank you he simply replied 'Happy Christmas'. Lovely! So an absolutely gigantic thank you to Better World Books for this very kind donation. You began my Christmas sparkle! And now we are well on track for our target.
Andrew and Helen Maiden have been amazing; they brought surplus books from North Leamington School library (thank you, thank you) and sat and had a cuppa. We chatted about the work of the Book Bus and a week later I received a letter in the post from Andrew saying he was making the Book Bus his charity of the year along with a donation of £300 for the Book in Every Hand Appeal and, and... Helen is organising events at North Leamington School. A super couple – thank you both so much! Shine! (That's a star glistening in the sky for you).
So one month in and over half way. Let's make this shooting star the biggest and brightest yet. I need books for Zambia. How can you help? Contact me...
Sparkle and shine!
Diane
Book in every hand appeal 2012 update
Toot Toot!
One week into the book appeal and what a fantastic start.
Absolute star Rachael Burnett has raised £656.68 for the Book Bus which she has given to the ‘Book in Every Hand’ Zambia. Rachael – thank you so very much.
Our first donated books arrived at the office via Book Bus volunteers Liliane Barbier and Elena Bryan. Toot Toot!
Warwick Words kindly provided 56 copies of their children’s anthology of poetry.
And then the promises from publishers have started, which gets me very excited… And then the Book Drives have started, which gets me really, really excited!
250 books in our first week – I am delighted that we are on track.
So here’s my next ‘Toot Toot’, it’s to you.
Toot Toot! Join in! Toot Toot! Join in!
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Google and The Book Bus conquer Mt Toubkal
A big "Well Done" and a massive vote of thanks go to the staff from the Google office in London who conquered Mt Toubkal in Morroco to raise a huge amount of money for the Book Bus. Climbing Toubkal is no mean feat, it's summit is 4167 meteres above sea level which puts you higher than any point in western Europe. Congratulations to the team of 20 climbers and we look forward to supporting you on next year's climb.
A special peak report from Belinda Poole:
Setting off at 5am in the dark to climb a mountain – who’s idea was that?! But when the sun rose at 7am it all became clear – stunning views of the Atlas Mountains and a peak above us ready to conquer. And conquer we did!! Step by step it was a slow climb up, with the wind ready to knock you off your feet at any moment and if you went too fast you’d quickly run out of breath with the thin air. We reached the summit just after 9am with blue skies and perfect views. All 20 of the Google party made it up to the top – a fantastic achievement!! In total the 20 of us raised over £12K for the Book Bus and Google will match that amount so the £24k will allow us to buy a new bus for the children in Africa. Now all we have to do is start thinking about where to climb next year!!!
UNHCR Meheba 2011
The Book Bus arrives in Meheba UNHCR refugee settlement. The Book Bus and its volunteer crew will be marking "World Refugee Day" today in Meheba where more than 17,000 refugees from Angola, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia are housed by the UN in preparation for repatriation or passage to a new home. Whilst conditions within the settlement are reasonably comfortable by African bush standards, opportunities and education are severely limited. You can imagine then the joy that the Book Bus brings every time we visit Meheba. 2011 marks our third year of cooperation with UNHCR and Book Bus coordinator Jackie Wigglesworth and her crew of volunteers will be providing reading assistance and story telling sessions at 5 schools within the camp. Follow their own story on Facebook and on the Book Bus Blog.
World Refugee Day 20 June 2011
The UN General Assembly decided that, from 2001, 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day This year the UN refugee agency, in its 60th year, will mark World Refugee Day with a rich and varied programme of events in locations worldwide and the launch of a new global awareness campaign. UNHCR will start rolling out the multimedia "One" campaign next week. Over the next six months it will increase awareness about the forcibly displaced and stateless by telling their powerful personal stories. The campaign will carry the message that "One Refugee Without Hope is too Many." Every day, millions of refugees face murder, rape and terror. We believe even 1 is too many.
Malawi Book Drive - latest news
We’re almost at 2,000 books!
The last two weeks have been very exciting. The children from Caerleon School, Newport gave over 200 books and kindly donated their pocket money – an amazing £100 towards the appeal. A really big thanks to teacher Suzanne Price (previous Book Bus volunteer) and the delightful children – it was a real pleasure to meet them.
We visited The Book Barn, Hallatrow www.bookbarninternational.co.uk which was an extraordinary experience; the UK’s largest second-hand bookshop, wall to ceiling, stacks and stacks and stacks! The owners have agreed a donation which is going to boost the numbers! On Wednesday 1st June we’ll be holding a children’s storytelling event from 11 – 12.30 and painting a mural in the Book Barn café in the afternoon. Join us if you’re near!
The deadline for the shipment is drawing nearer, 1st July. Any support given will make a difference. Almost half way and time is ticking.
I need your help people! 3,000 to go – whoop-whoop!
Diane Maybey
The Federation of Children's Book Groups
A big thank you to the Federation of Children's Book Groups (FCGB) who invited the Book Bus to attend the final day of their annual conference and receive a splendid donation of 11 boxes overflowing with brand new books. These books will be added to the rising total of our "Book in Every Hand" appeal and will be distributed in Malawi to children eager to read. Special thanks go to the FCGB's outgoing chair Jayne Truran and incoming chair Adam Lancaster.
Ex volunteers maintain links with Zambia schools
Our thanks go to ex Book Bus volunteers Gill Crawshaw, Julia Robinson and Rita Storr for sending a large donation of story books and materials to go to Zambia. The schools we support in the Livingstone area will benefit greatly from their generosity.
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