SFU students collect over 10,000 books to boost literacy

The BIG Book Drive team made up of three Simon Fraser University students, Joseph Choi, Alex Venetis and Steffi Chua would like to thank the residents of BC for their incredible support and generosity on February 26th and March 19-20, 2011 in Richmond and Burnaby, respectively. Altogether, these communities donated more than 10,000 books to The BIG Book Drive, all of which is benefiting the Salvation Army’s Family Services to provide low-income families and children with an opportunity to gain a better literacy education. In addition, the team was able to recycle more than 24 large boxes of magazines and catalogues, all of which was recycled into new resources.
“This project was started in the beginning of January just 10 weeks ago. Our initial estimation for this entire book drive was going to be 2,000 books, but we never could’ve imagined that we would end up with over 10,000,” says Joseph Choi, one of The BIG Book Drive coordinators. “The generosity from the Lower Mainland community is simply incredible.”
These books are going towards the Salvation Army in support of their Family Services and their other literacy-related programs. According to Literacy BC, 40% of adults in British Columbia do not have the literacy skills needed to fully participate and succeed in today’s world. This presents over one million people who are under-equipped to cope with society’s increasing informational demands. Having low literacy rates increases poverty and crime which hinders economic productivity; it indirectly affects our personal health and well-being overall. The BIG Book Drive team wants to give these low-income families and children access to these books so that they could gain the literacy skills to succeed.