Countywide : Books Sought for Post Office Drive

Coordinators of the post office’s annual book drive fear that they will not reach their 50,000-book goal before the event ends Saturday and are encouraging people with extra books to donate them.

Although they have not been able to tally the number of books collected at postal branches throughout the county, organizers believe that contributions have been lower than expected.

“We’ll take whatever books they want to send to us,” said Stacy Di Rocco, a spokeswoman for the post office.

This is the first year the post office’s annual book drive will collect and distribute books all over the county, a program aimed at promoting literacy among children ranging from kindergarten to high school age by giving them books to read outside of school.

Postal carriers will pick up books that are left by mailboxes, and the office will send out trucks to collect larger loads. Also, donors can bring books to any post office and leave them in collection boxes in the lobby.

Additionally, businesses or residents who give 1,000 books or more will be given special mention and their gift will be commemorated with a plaque at the end of the drive.

The third annual event comes during National Book Week, which ends Saturday and is a nationwide promotion of literacy in America.

All books collected will be given to any area school that asks for them. Some, particularly encyclopedias and reference books, will go toward building up school libraries. Novels, dictionaries and other books may go for school collections but will also be given to children who ask for them to keep.

She said the book giveaway will try to help families who cannot afford to buy their children extra books.

The post office hopes that the free books will give a boost to dwindling school budgets throughout the county. Many districts are unable to buy new books and update libraries this year because of the recession and are facing budgets cuts for such supplies.

The book drive began as a local effort between the Santa Ana post office and nearby elementary schools, which raised about 20,000 books annually for the children. The success of that program and widespread interest from schools around the county led the post office and its workers to expand the program nationwide.

This year, 900,000 flyers for the event were distributed to households and businesses throughout the county soliciting donations.