[Bookstoprisoners] UC Books to Prisoners Newsletter - Feb 2010

Sat Feb 27 11:54:02 CST 2010

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March 2010 Newsletter

This winter has been an extremely busy and exciting time around Books To
Prisoners. We recently surpassed 44,000 books shipped which is significant
as there are approximately 44,000 inmates incarcerated by the Illinois
Department of Corrections at any given moment. While symbolic, this number
represents the tremendous growth of our program over the past six years and
reflects the dedication of our volunteers who provide human interaction and
connections to incarcerrated people one letter at a time.

Our weekly volunteer sessions have been growing in recent months; some of
our sessions frequently see more than twenty volunteers. As our organization
and operations continue to grow, so does our need to fund our work. Our
shipping bill jumped $2,000 from 2008 to 2009 and we anticipate another
significant jump in 2010. A $3 donation will send a package to an
incarcerrated person, $30 will send a package to 10, and $300 will send a
package to 100 individuals. Please consider making a donation by
paypal<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=finance@books2prisoners.org&item_name=Financial%20Donation%20to%20UC%20Books%20to%20Prisoners&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP-DonationsBF&charset=UTF-8>
.
 News   Volunteer Spotlight - Janet Wesse
<http://www.books2prisoners.org/images/janet_packing.jpg>Janet has been a
member of the CU community since 1970 and after being a supporter of our
organization, began volunteering with BTP a year ago at the encouragement of
friends who were active volunteers. Since Janet became a regular volunteer
in the BTP workshop, her daughter Erinn has also began volunteering
occassionally.

Janet may be one of the first volunteers to greet you as as you arrive at
our workshop on Saturday afternoons and Tuesday evenings, as she spends most
of her volunteer hours working in our anteroom packing orders.

Twenty years ago Janet realized the impact of providing books to prisoners
while corresponding with inmates. Today at BTP you will often find her
working at the packing table, a tasks she enjoys doing so other volunteers
can spend their time selecting *just the right books* to respond to
requests.

In addition to volunteering with BTP, Janet helps provide holistic, free
health care to our community through her volunteer efforts with Champaign
County Christian Health Center <http://www.ccchc2003.org/Mission>. Janet is
uniquely qualified for this volunteer experience by her day job, working in
the hematology lab at Carle Hospital, where she has spent the past six years
of her 30 year career in the field.

Please join us in thanking Janet for her efforts the next time you see her
around town or at the BTP workshop in the Independent Media Center.

Work Space Upgrades

Between December and February we invested $1,700 in necessary electrical
upgrades to our work space. Approximately 65 hours and a considerable amount
of materials (including several recycled and re-purposed fixtures) were
employed to replace the tangle of extension cords and mismatched lighting
fixtures in our room. Fresh conduit was run, new outlets were added as well
as energy efficient light fixtures which more evenly distribute the light.
As a result of this investment, our room is now much safer and has the
capacity to support our current and future electrical needs.

A new system of organizing outgoing "bulk" packages was recently implemented
in our shipping room. As more Illinois prisons recognize the value of the
work we do and begin to see us as a partner (thanks to the efforts of our
liason, Barbara Kessel) we continue to relize the financial benefits of
sending multiple packages in a single box to select facilities.

A special thanks goes to Sarah Ross for taking the initiative to fix-up and
re-purpose this shelving as well as designing the bulk package tracking
system and peforming other upgrades to our anteroomincluding the addition of
chalk board surfaces, convenient for leaving messages and posting
announcements. Look for additional changes in this room as we free up more
space and figure out how to better use this multi purpose room.

Thanks to the generousity of our volunteers and community, this winter we
replaced all four of our old computers with considerably more powerful,
newer machines which should meet our needs for severalyears to come. We are
also in the process of replacing the old monitors with space saving, energy
efficient LCD models.

The application of our new logo to the door of our workshop represents one
of several phases involved in unifying our organization's image in our
community. This custom vinly decal was prepared and donated by supporter
Casey Smith, who plans to provide additional vinly decals for use in other
places throughout the IMC.

   Outreach Initiatives
<http://www.books2prisoners.org/images/flyers/brochure.pdf>In
January we printed several thousand copies of this glossy
brochure<http://www.books2prisoners.org/images/flyers/brochure.pdf>,
featuring photography donated by Nick Mann and design services donated by
Ryan Griffis. This brochure will serve as a centerpiece of our publicity and
outreach materials in coming years. If you know people who would like to
learn more about BTP, please pick up some brochures to share.

Judith Pond, our AmeriCorps outreach coordinator is currently engaged in
writing a service-learning curriculum to use with high school and college
groups that volunteer with BTP. If you are involved with a group of young
people that would like to set up a service-learning volunteer session (to be
held outside of our public work hours), please contact Judith at
volunteer at books2prisoners.org.

www.books2prisoners.org

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