Regenerating books from the past to aid the future

In 2014, the club Black Student Union (BSU) was established by current President and Vice President, Lauren Howell and India Card. The club was small in size and consisted primarily of meetings and discussions in which all students, no matter their race, were welcome to attend. However, this year the club has vastly grown and has made the decision to take on a new challenge: the African Library Project.

“We just started the club last year,” said junior India Card. “The African Library Project is a major thing for us, last year we just had meetings and conversations. This year we’re trying to do more, and be more involved in the community, as well as the world.”

The African Library Project is a non-profit organization that allows countries, schools, and communities in Africa to apply for grants to build libraries. For the organization, there are two tasks that can be performed by individuals or groups that desire to help out with the project; making a donation or starting a book-drive. BSU has decided to initiate a book drive in which the entire school can participate in.

“We’re trying to get 1,000 books by March 15th,” said junior Lauren Howell. “We made that our deadline because we have to have the books shipped by April 20th.”

Collecting one thousand books as an individual club posed a challenge for BSU. However, to resolve this they have partnered with the National Achievers Society (NAS) to ensure that their goal will be reached.  

“BSU is not an honors society,” said Howell. “We don’t have nearly as many members or resources as NAS, but both clubs have similar goals and are based off of the same thing. We wanted to tackle it together because we wanted it to be a combined effort, and also because the project is toward minority achievement. We wanted minorities to see the importance of giving back.”

The project is not just limited to the clubs BSU and NAS.  A student organized African Library Project committee has been active in reaching out to other clubs around the school for more support.

“We have a committee of 11 to 13 people that do the direct things such as making the boxes and posters,” said Howell. “We also have meetings after school where we discuss how we will get enough money to ship the books. However, through the committee we reach out to other clubs; we have reached out to NAS, English Honor Society, National Honor Society, FBLA, and Beta Club.”

The committee has been very productive, however they are still attempting to figure out how they will raise money to ship the books to Africa.

“We’re still trying to figure out how we will raise the money,” said Card. “We have to get permission from administration. We’re thinking about doing a raffle and some sort of fundraiser, we’re just not entirely sure yet.”

When the money is raised, the books will be shipped to the African Library Project Headquarters. Then they will eventually reach Glorious Nyame Bekyere International School in Ahinsan-Kumasi, Ghana, where the library with the donated books will be constructed.

“It definitely impacts me knowing that children in Africa will be helped by the African Library Project,” said junior NAS member, Joelle Balcita. “Through [the project] we are donating books and those books enable kids to expand their knowledge and develop creativity.”

Through posters, fliers, announcements, large donation boxes, and giving students the opportunity to donate books for service hours in some clubs, both BSU and NAS are encouraging students to make an impact by simply donating.

“Students should participate in this project because it’s important to support each other,” said Card. “This project not only helps support Black Student Union at Wakefield, but on a bigger scale, this project helps children to be able to have the opportunity to read a book, as well as to inspire education, reading, and literacy among young people.”

The major goal of the project seems simply to donate books, but to students it has a meaningful, underlying purpose.

“When I think about our school, our school is amazing,” said Howell. “People don’t have this around the world, they don’t have classrooms or buildings that are safe to be in. They don’t have any resources.  The community where the library will be built has preschoolers through eighth graders, and they don’t even have a library or source of books. I feel like the overall goal of the project is to increase literacy and to increase education among countries that need it.”

The idea for the project did not originate in the minds of the club advisors. Rather, the president of Black Student Union, Lauren Howell thoroughly researched the project before making the decision to commence the African Library Project in Wakefield.

“I was just looking for projects and community service opportunities online and I came across it,” said Howell.  “I looked at the website and it’s very detailed, and at first I thought it was going to be a challenge, but I like challenges. I thought that the overall goal was more important than the hard work that goes into it.”

Howell was not the only one to acknowledge the difficulty of the project. The Vice President of BSU, India Card, admitted she originally had her doubts.

“When Lauren first came to me with the idea, I was thinking about all the problems,” said Card. “She really looked into it, though, and I saw all of the pictures and it just seems like a really great opportunity. No one at Wakefield has done this before.”

Despite the probability of encountering difficulties, Card now feels more assured that the African Library Project will be a success.

“It’s been really encouraging to walk around the school and see the boxes being filled,” said Card. “I didn’t really think it would start off so high, but it’s been pretty good so far.”

Things seem to be running smoothly for the project so far, but work is still being put in and completed in order to reach the donation goal.

“We’re also doing a partnership with the elementary school that will get started this month,” said Howell. “Everything takes a lot of planning, but the class that raises the most books will get a pizza party. We’re also trying to work with the middle school, and the people in the committee have reached out to neighbors, friends, and church members.”

BSU and NAS have been hard at work with the African Library Project, putting in large amounts of time to make the project run smoothly and effectively. To provide their work with meaning, both BSU and NAS are asking the students of Wakefield to help out.

“You need to donate books; everyone has old books in their house that they never read anymore and aren’t too terribly marked up,” said Howell. “Even if you don’t, encourage neighbors, friends, people in your religious communities, anyone you know, and anyone outside of school. By getting the word out and bringing in all those books, you yourself are making an amazing impact on the project in general.”