Bridge to Asia -- NACS Donors

We often hear back from college bookstore managers, who tell us about their experiences sending books to Bridge to Asia. Letters from two bookstore managers are excerpted here:

...I am in charge of the 'Bridge' book drives held on our campus and within our local community. It is truly rewarding to be able to participate in this program. Students, at buy back time, are occasionally dismayed at the "no value" placed on old editions, etc. When we explain their alternative, they seem to feel better about not getting any money back. Our local high school and elementary schools have donated several times, as does our campus library and the local community in general.
When we have large shipments to make, our used book wholesaler provides boxes for us, and our freight company provides free shipping for us. My staff donates their time and labor to do the gathering, packing, etc. All of us working together makes this happen.
Since I began this program on our campus in 1993, we estimate that we have sent approximately 19,650 lb. of books which calculates to around 6,000 books (give or take a few).
We are very proud of the reception our campus and local community members have given to the Bridge to Asia program. Thank you for letting us be a part of it.
Sincerely,
Rose McDonald
Director, Trojan Center Bookstore
Dakota State University

Accompanying this letter are twenty-five boxes of books, books that I hope are destined for students and the culturally curious in Asia. I send these books for several reasons -- that I hate throwing books away, that I need space in my bookstore, that there are people in the world who don't have the ready access to the printed word that my privileged students at Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe do.
It is the latter reason that is most compelling to me, for I've never been without books. Since I was read to as a baby and a toddler and since I learned to read via the Sunday funny papers, I've never been alone; if not at home, my books were ready for me at the Carnegie public library in my little home town. The idea that there were people eager to read in the world but who could not get books was not a concept in my own print privileged life.
Books are not the first order of business in many countries of the world, ours included. But to be unable to get them points out just one more dichotomy between the haves and have-nots of this pale blue dot. Among the several ways there are to equalize a poverty of access, sending books to China may be one of the most life enhancing.

Colleen O'Brien
Bookstore Manager,
Sierra Nevada College

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