Three Simple Ways You Can Donate Books on Veteran’s Day
Veteran's Day holds a special place in my heart. My Dad's a veteran and my fiancee is a veteran who spends her days trying to help other veterans as a social worker. They are both amazing.
Over the years, several of my closest hometown friends served overseas. I loved, LOVED sending them care packages whenever I could, and these boxes were always full of books.
Today is Veteran's Day, and while I don't know anyone serving abroad this year, there are many veterans in my life. And chances are, in yours too. I've rounded up some simple ways you can donate books today. Some of these are for sending books to soldiers far away, others might send books to a veteran at your local VA.
One even lets you send books to children of military members, through Reach Out and Read. Check them out.
Books-A-Million's Books for Troops Program: The awesome people over at BAM have a program where you can purchase books right off their website and send them to troops overseas. It's a really simple way to do this right away, and I've tried to do it every year.
My recommendations from the Troops list? The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and The Passage by Justin Cronin. You can also donate copies of A Game of Thrones, which includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords . That's a lot of reading right there, you guys.
They also have a Books for Veterans and a special Books for Kids program.
Notable titles include One Summer by Bill Bryson, Still Foolin' 'Em by Bill Crystal, and In the Garden by Beasts by Erik Larson for veterans, and there are a few good MG and YA titles for kids, including one of my personal favorites, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Books for Soldiers: While Books-A-Million offers up a solid array of titles you can mail out, Books for Soldiers' message board lets you grant specific, special requests. After a simple registration process, you can sign up to browser the Books for Soldiers message board. It's sorted out by branch and needs, and soldiers post their requests right on the board. Respond, and send your books out.
Operation Paperback: Another organization that lets you send books to soldiers. Great thing about these guys, is they have a solid Facebook presence where they post with requests. You can sign up to be a volunteer on their website, and hey, to those of you from Philadelphia (where Quirk is based), Operation Paperback is based here in Pennsylvania. Yay!
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If you're looking for even more ways to donate, the amazing people over at GalleyCat, round up opportunities almost every single year. Lots of good ones in here, all certainly worth checking out.
Eric Smith
ERIC SMITH is the cofounder of Geekadelphia, a popular blog covering all-that-is-geek in the City of Brotherly Love, as well as the Philadelphia Geek Awards, an annual awards show held at the Academy of Natural Sciences. He’s written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, and Philly.com
