By Madeline

One of the Wonderland BookSavers’ latest endeavors is to have 2,000 educators sign up on the First Book form so we can receive 40,000 new, free, books. However, while the term educator can be used to describe people eligible to sign up, it is rather restricting. In fact, anyone doing community service work is eligible to sign up. Anyone affiliated with the following programs is also eligible to sign up:

First Book will send us the 40,000 books when we get our 2,000 educators to fill out First Book’s five-minute form. Receiving the 40,000 books would allow us to double our current donations. When we first encountered First Book, it was at the Global Finals of Destination Imagination in Knoxville Tennessee. They were located in the Expo, and we met with them, and after talking with coordinators discovered that if we could get 2,000 educators signed up, then we would receive a tractor-trailer brimming with 40,000 books identical to the one there. We looked at the enormous tractor-trailer, and then at all of the 40,000 books which had come from inside. Other educators had applied for 40,000 books to be brought to their area, but there was enough surplus of books that we could take roughly four thousand books. We had a trailer which had transported the props for our Destination Imagination project, and we promptly threw out our props in order to bring home the books.

Claire collecting books from the First Book tractor-trailer in Knoxville TN

A new aspect of working with First Book is that the books we receive won’t have been “saved.” The reason our team is called the Wonderland BookSavers instead of the Wonderland BookGivers is because our charity began by donating books we rescued from being shredded or destroyed. While we still continue to salvage books and hold book drives, receiving new books will be a new component in our charity.

First Book tractor-trailer at Destination Imagination

When we receive the books, we plan to first disperse them amongst the many schools we work with in Bridgeport and local areas. After all the local organizations have taken all the books they need, we will use the remaining books to donate to Appalachia WV, Native American Reservations, and our recipients in Central America, Haiti, and Africa.

Recipients of our books

By taking the time to sign up on the First Book form, you can impact many lives. That’s right, the five minutes you take to fill out the survey can help thousands of children and help us undertake our newest, biggest endeavor yet! The survey consists of questions regarding what type of community service you are involved in. All of the BookSavers have filled out their information and hope that you will help them reach their goal of having 2,000 people sign up by May 2016. Links to the survey can be found at the bottom of our homepage, or by using the following link: https://register.firstbook.org/?rgst=WonderlandBooksavers

We hope you will help us to change the world one educator, one form, one tractor-trailer at a time!