Sierra Dasher
Staff Writer
As part of the week-long celebration of Earth Day the Associated Students of the University of La Verne held a book drive for students and faculty to donate used and new books Tuesday in Sneaky Park.
Danielle Cooper, ASULV vice president of public relations, teamed up with the organization Better World Books, a for-profit organization that collects books and funds for literacy initiatives worldwide, to host a book drive for her senior project at the University of La Verne.
“There are actually 781 million adults around the world who are illiterate, and I just wanted to bring attention to that fact, and show how the University of La Verne students can help change that,” Cooper, senior public relation major said.
The book drive was successful receiving 615 books from the students and faculty of the University, Cooper said.
All donations from the book drive will go towards funding literacy programs through their partnership with Better World Books.
Each book that is sold will help fund libraries, schools, scholarships, tutoring, non-profit literacy programs and more, Cooper said. Books that cannot be sold will be recycled or donated, keeping thousands of books out of landfills.
This comes as the second day in the week long Earth Day celebration that ASULV has planned for the university community.
“I really like the whole entire initiative that they are doing for the week,” Wesly Tan, junior business administration major, said. “Out of all the different events they’re doing, I really do feel like they are making a difference and changing the environment.”
Students and faculty gathered in Sneaky Park to donate books and to claim one of the free totes ASULV offered in exchange for a donation.
They were also encouraged to make a pledge of how they will personally try to be more environmentally friendly.
Pledges such as “I pledge to not use plastic bags” and “I pledge to recycle more” were written all over the posters provided.
“It was really nice seeing people come out and make their pledges, and it was nice for us to say what we do ourselves and it makes kind of a domino effect,” Selyna Ybarra, ASULV senator at large and sophomore business administration major, said.
“It’s really cool seeing the power of what one person can do,” she said.
“We got a huge donation from the political science and history department which really helped us out, and a couple of outside donations and a lot from teachers and students, so we collected more than we expected and we are very happy,” Cooper said.
Sierra Dasher can be reached at sierra.dasher@laverne.edu.
Sierra Dasher
