I like reading! I like recycling! I like helping my community! ReLIT is a non profit that really just wants to help people get more books.
There are book drop centers at whole foods around manhattan and ReLIT picks them up and once a month gives them away for free at busy street corners. There is no catch. The books are free an they are all different genres. I have to admit I was a little nervous that I would show up and it would be a group handing out fundamentalist literature. Instead we handed out books on philosophy, Moby Dick, Dostoyevsky in Swedish, and David Sedaris...it was awesome.
You're probably surprised that given my rose experience I was again willing to subject myself to passing out free things on the streets of new York.
It seems like free books would get a different reaction and attract a different audience than free roses. Unfortunately, yelling free books still makes people suspicious and angry. Once a crowd of people gathered around the books and started getting excited, it was much easier to pull people in.
Apparently telling someone you will give them something nice for free doesn't excite them as much as seeing other people crowded around an area. What if there was a dead baby people were crowded around? Would you rather see that than read a novel? I'm not sure how many of these people would answer that question.
The organization does have non profit status so all donations are tax deductible. Right now, the woman who started the organization pays for everything out of pocket. I would definitely like to help fundraise. They need money for storage units to store the books and for renting cars to transport the books to the street hubs.
Anyone have any ideas?
There are book drop centers at whole foods around manhattan and ReLIT picks them up and once a month gives them away for free at busy street corners. There is no catch. The books are free an they are all different genres. I have to admit I was a little nervous that I would show up and it would be a group handing out fundamentalist literature. Instead we handed out books on philosophy, Moby Dick, Dostoyevsky in Swedish, and David Sedaris...it was awesome.
You're probably surprised that given my rose experience I was again willing to subject myself to passing out free things on the streets of new York.
It seems like free books would get a different reaction and attract a different audience than free roses. Unfortunately, yelling free books still makes people suspicious and angry. Once a crowd of people gathered around the books and started getting excited, it was much easier to pull people in.
Apparently telling someone you will give them something nice for free doesn't excite them as much as seeing other people crowded around an area. What if there was a dead baby people were crowded around? Would you rather see that than read a novel? I'm not sure how many of these people would answer that question.
The organization does have non profit status so all donations are tax deductible. Right now, the woman who started the organization pays for everything out of pocket. I would definitely like to help fundraise. They need money for storage units to store the books and for renting cars to transport the books to the street hubs.
Anyone have any ideas?
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