YPG Cares Supports Project Cicero
This article was contributed by YPG member Leigh Camp. If you are a YPG member and would like to contribute articles on publishing-related topics for our site, please contact Stephanie Bowen at sbowen@randomhouse.com.
On Saturday, March 12, 2011, a group of YPG members from several AAP member publishing houses volunteered to help with Project Cicero (http://www.projectcicero.org/), an annual nonprofit book drive established in 2001 whose mission is to provide books to underfunded New York City public schools. Project Cicero has quite the impressive track record for making books accessible to kids—1.5 million books over the last ten years!
This year’s drive took place in the Gold Ballroom of the Pennsylvania Hotel (http://www.hotelpenn.com/) near Madison Square Garden. Volunteers spent all day replenishing tables full of books sorted by varying topics—history, geography, biography, science, picture, board books, chapter books, high school fiction, art, etc.—while teachers, librarians, and other school representatives picked tables clean nearly as quickly.
It was the best kind of pandemonium. Volunteers and teachers worked tirelessly together hunting down the perfect books for their students. Teachers brought large suitcases for their finds, and Project Cicero provided free extra bags for the (nearly inevitable) overflow.
The number of teachers willing to give up a weekend afternoon to go in search of more reading material for their kids was truly inspirational. And it seemed like the kids would benefit greatly from these new additions to their classroom libraries. More than one teacher said, “I just can’t give them enough to read. They go through them all so quickly!”
YPG members worked alongside volunteers from other organizations restocking tables with new picks, and also assisting teachers in locating specific requests from their students for favorite titles and genres. At the end of the day, people left tired (books are heavy!) but satisfied. Most importantly, thanks to the drive, hundreds of classroom libraries were restocked with books for eager young readers.
