Bookmobile News

The holiday season has brought us a wonderful and unexpected gift! We just learned that Domtar Paper has picked up the tab for a big supply of brand new children’s books coming our way. They have partnered with First Book to help promote literacy in underserved communities. From the announcement:

“Through their Powerful Pages campaign, Domtar is giving children the opportunity to experience the wonder that books provide.  Domtar asked First Book to distribute 35,000 books nationwide. As part of this program, we are thrilled to award Free Bookmobile of Sonoma County [new books] to further support your commitment to literacy…Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the work that you do in your community.  First Book works with thousands of organizations like yours across the country and we appreciate your commitment to promoting literacy and helping us get books to the children who need them most.”

Domtar takes their partnerships seriously and we are impressed by their attention to the sustainability of the paper industry as well. Click here to learn more about their relationships with the World Wildlife Fund, Rainforest Alliance, and other organizations.

We are both thankful and inspired that our services are in demand! In order to meet the public’s interest in accessing high quality books from our shelves, we need to expand our wonderful crew of volunteers. We are especially in need of folks who can drive a route once per month to pick up book donations from our area partners. There are usually five friendly locations to visit, and you’ll need to be able to lift up to 40 lbs, but generally the books will fit into any mid-sized or bigger vehicle (including hatchbacks) in one run. This is a commitment of a few hours monthly.

We also need volunteers who would be interested in promoting our regular visits to certain parts of the county, including the Roseland and Larkfield areas. This would involve doing a little neighborhood research, maintaining an email list, and posting a few flyers once per month.

There are other opportunities utilizing your special talents! Please contact us by emailing Director Glen Weaver at glen@freebookmobile.org, or by calling 707-520-4536.

Good citizens of Rohnert Park and surrounding areas…we finally have you covered! The friendly folks at the Exchange Bank on Commerce Blvd have graciously agreed to host a book donation box for us year-round. Here’s the relevant info:

6290 Commerce Blvd (x RP Expressway)

Mon-Thurs 9 Am – 5 Pm, Fri until 6, Sat 10 Am – 2 Pm

584-7300

This location fills a big gap between our Santa Rosa and Petaluma sites, and we are very grateful to our partners at EB! They have been eager participants in our previous summer book drives and this further demonstrates their commitment to local community services. The box is installed and ready — please bring us the best of your collection that you don’t read anymore so we can make it available to those who are challenged for access. For more about our book donation guidelines, visit our website at http://freebookmobile.org and click “Donate Books”.  And thank you for your support!

World Book Night is back! And applications are open now. This is a wonderful program that prints special editions of great books (both recent and classic) and puts them in the hands of people who want to give them away. Ever wanted to be like the Free Bookmobile and make people’s day with a gift of the printed word?  Take a look at the varied list of books here:

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/books/2014 and then apply to be a giver here:

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/how-do-i-get-involved/be-book-giver-us.

As long as you are 16 or older and can commit to putting free new books into the hands of light and non-readers on April 23, you’re a candidate to help! It’s a whole bunch of fun and even if you’re too shy to give away the books yourself, you could always pass them to us for distribution. Yes, we’re here to help  :)

We are grateful to our new book-donation partners, Argent Bank in northeast Petaluma! Formerly Sonoma Bank, Argent is the new name but features the same friendly folks inside G & G Market at the 701-B Sonoma Mountain Parkway shopping center. They are now accepting all kinds of gently used books for the shelves of the Free Bookmobile:

And big thanks as we say goodbye to the wonderful staff of the COTS Mary Isaak Center, who have been our donation stalwarts for the past four years. Tens of thousands of your books have passed through their hands to help make the Free Bookmobile such a fun place to browse. That’s a lot of bags and boxes to lift and store for us! They’ve earned a well deserved rest as we pass the baton across town to Argent Bank.

The results are in: our big summer book drive brought in 4,935 children’s books for the Free Bookmobile’s shelves! This will ensure that we can continue to reach the most access-challenged kids throughout Sonoma County with great reading material this fall. Special thanks to all the folks who stopped by with well wishes (and books!) at United Way’s Day of Caring on September 11, and of course to our major partners in this endeavor (see post below for the complete list). Check out just a small portion of our haul in the photo, filling up the back of the ‘mobile. It’s like Christmas come early!

It’s that time of year – time for our annual children’s book drive!  We’ve been giving away our current supply at a terrific rate, reaching thousands of low-income and otherwise access-challenged kids around Sonoma County.  We’ve kept them growing, learning, and smiling throughout the summer.  Now we need to restock, and you can help!

Our 3^rd year sponsor in this endeavor, United Way of the Wine Country, has organized a vast array of donation points for your convenience.  We are especially grateful to Exchange Bank and Hansel Auto Group, who will feature bins at all of their county locations to receive your book donations beginning Monday, August 12.  Just choose the one closest to you!  We are especially looking for new and gently used books for toddlers, early readers, and teens, in both English and Spanish.  This drive will end on United Way’s Day of Caring, September 11, with a gala event at the County Administration Center from 8 Am – 1 Pm featuring the Free Bookmobile, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Goodwill, and Bloodsource.

A fun way to participate is to organize a mini book drive at your work, church, book club or other organization, and then bring us the loot afterward.  Amy’s Kitchen, JDS Uniphase, and Rodney Strong employees have enjoyed this project in recent years and are eager to get started again.  We appreciate the support, no matter how big or small your group might be!

We have beautiful new photos for you on our website!  Click over to http://freebookmobile.org and check out 2013 gallery page.  Celebrating all the folks who can’t help but grin when they inevitably find something awesome on our shelves, this one’s entitled “Show us your new books!”

And if you get a good picture of the Free Bookmobile as we make our rounds about town, please consider sharing it with us via email.  We love adding fan photos to our growing collection.

We are very proud to announce renewal and expansion of major operational funding from The Ernest L. and Ruth W. Finley Foundation! This support has been a tremendous boon over the past year, allowing us to focus our time and resources on improving the consistency and quality of our service delivery. We are delighted to be in ongoing partnership with a foundation with such a tremendous legacy, a foundation that has done so much to improve the quality of life of Sonoma County residents.  The funding of the Free Bookmobile speaks boldly of their commitment to local literacy outreach.

Ernest & Ruth Finley supported all worthwhile community projects during their 76 years of newspaper and radio ownership, and were in the vanguard of any effort to advance or assist the City of Santa Rosa, County of Sonoma, and North Bay region, including the founding of the Sonoma County Fair, and representation of the northern counties in making the Golden Gate Bridge a reality.  The Ernest L. and Ruth W. Finley Foundation continues perpetually their interest in the well being of the community.

We are delighted to have a new partner in the Kiwanis Club of Santa Rosa! Their foundation received 300 books from the Reading Is Fundamental program and donated all of them to the Free Bookmobile. It’s a terrific selection of early readers and other children’s titles that will be immediately useful in our summer travels. We hope this is the start of a beautiful relationship as we have already begun discussions on future collaboration.

The non-profit Santa Rosa Kiwanis Foundation collects and disperses funds for the benefit of the community. These charitable activities follow the guidelines of the Kiwanis Clubs in categories that primarily focus on assisting and developing our youth. You can learn more about them, and how to participate, on their website: http://santarosakiwanis.org/.