Capstone Donates $3 Million in Books to School Libraries in Africa
RSSBy SLJ Staff
Just in time for the holidays, children's book publisher Capstone is donating $5 million worth of books to Books for Africa, the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the continent. Some 300,000 overstock books already began their journey to Africa on November 24, when they left the publisher's warehouse in Mankato, MN, and made their way to the Books for Africa offices in St. Paul, MN. The books are now being sorted and packaged for shipment to Africa. Volunteers sort and pack books at the Books For Africa warehouse "This incredibly generous donation from Capstone is one of the largest publisher donations received by Books for Africa we can remember and will fill many, many school libraries across Africa with books," says Pat Plonski, the nonprofit organization's executive director. "We truly appreciate the tremendous support of everyone at Capstone in helping to increase levels of education and literacy across Africa. Through education we can prevent many problems in the developing world."
in St. Paul, MN.
This is Capstone's third major donation in less than two years to Books for Africa. In 2009, the publisher donated more than 37,000 books to the organization.
"This is by far the largest single book donation Capstone has made in our nearly 20-year history of publishing," says Lisa Hanson, Capstone's human resources director. "We are excited to once again work with such an esteemed organization as Books for Africa to help raise literacy education and offer hope to children. We're proud to be a part of breaking the literacy and poverty cycle."
Books donated to the program include titles from the publishers' divisions Capstone Press, Compass Point Books, Picture Window Books, and Stone Arch Books.
Since its start in 1988, Books for Africa has shipped more than 23 million books to 45 countries across Africa. In 2009, Books for Africa shipped approximately 1.6 million books to 20 African countries.
