Tuesday, April 13, 2004

WILMINGTON, N.C. - The goal is to collect 12,000 textbooks before the end of the semester.

Accomplishing it should be a breeze, Lynetta Karlson, a junior non-traditional social work major at UNCW, believes.

As a member of the Student Social Work Organization, she is heading up a local Books for Africa service project along with Kappa Alpha Psi, the Black Student Union and Teaching Fellows. And the project is generating a lot of interest on campus.

“The most exciting part is the collaboration among student organizations,” she said. “Our enthusiasm must be contagious because in less than a week this project has really begun to grow wings, as many more students and student organizations are jumping on board.”

The book drive is a service project being done in honor of Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo’s installation which takes place Friday, April 16.

“All of us are very excited about her being here, and this is a way to honor her,” Karlson said. She and several other students surprised the chancellor April 7 when they presented her with a notebook outlining their project. Those students were freshman Adam Light, a Teaching Fellow from Oxford, N.C.; junior Jerrod Copeland of Charlotte, president of Kappa Alpha Psi; and junior Leah Huttlinger of New Bern, N.C., book drive chair.

Books for Africa, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization, collects, sorts, ships and distributes books to children in Africa. There is a particular need for college-level textbooks. Twenty percent of the books will actually end up in Africa, Karlson explained. The remainder will be resold, and the money raised will be used to ship the books and purchase other books.

“One hundred percent of the funds go to Books for Africa,” she pointed out. It’s such an awesome idea. If we’re going to change the world, this is how we should do it,” Karlson said.

While central book drop offs will be located in Randall Library and at the University Union Information Desk (where a tally board will keep passersby apprised of the collection progress), academic departments are encouraged to set up collection boxes in their areas. The book drive ends Friday, April 30.

Area residents are welcome to participate in the Books for Africa project.