Center collects used books to fill prisoners’ requests

Each letter contains a request.

Sometimes it’s for a book about a general topic, and other times it’s for a specific book. Volunteers search through the piles to find the best match, and then pack up the book and send it off to a prisoner.

The Native American Community Center of Bloomington, the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department and the First Nation Educational and Cultural Center are sponsoring a book drive to benefit the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project.

The drive is going on until Friday and books can be dropped off at four locations on campus.

Graduate student Del Criscenzo-Boyer said she has read the letters and the requests are usually for novels, college textbooks or books about the legal system.

“We’re always looking for books that can help them,” said Criscenzo-Boyer, the community center’s treasurer.

The drive accepts all books, regardless of condition, and it’s a way to get rid of books the bookstore won’t buy back or will only pay a few dollars for.

Criscenzo-Boyer said the community center wants to reach out to the community, and
the drive is a good way to connect.

Center president Rebecca Riall said the drive was one way its members could be involved in the community as well as help members of the American Indian community who are in prison.

Books are often the only window prisoners have to the outside world, Criscenzo-Boyer said.

Since the drive began April 29, the center has collected about 50 books, and Riall said she wants to collect 200 books by the end of the drive.

Criscenzo-Boyer said the drop-off locations are very convenient for people to donate books. She added that she would also pick up books from people who e-mail her and say they can’t make it to one of the drop-off sites.

“If there is a pile of books in the garage or basement, you can donate them,” Criscenzo-Boyer said.

In addition to drop-off sites on campus, the community center is working with local churches and reading groups who are collecting books for the drive.

Criscenzo-Boyer said she plans to donate 100 of her own books that she has accumulated in her time as a student. She said she has a love for books, and probably has about 1,000 books at her home in France.

But despite her love for books, she said she is willing to part with them because education and books go hand-in-hand.

Increasing self-education and stimulating thinking are goals of the volunteer-based project.

Criscenzo-Boyer added that books had the power to change her life, and she wants to pass her books on to people who might enjoy reading them.

“The books are used for a good cause and really help people,” she said.