UKirk at MSU collects new/used children’s books

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) — UKirk at MSU is always looking for ways to uplift the community.

So when they came across the term “book deserts,” they wanted to be part of that story.

“A book desert is a geographic area where books are not readily available to young people, especially children,” said Campus Minister Neil Myer.

Neil says Michigan has book deserts and is impacting kids right now.

So to help solve this problem, UKirk started their own book project.

“I contacted a few people and offered to drive by and just pick up the books for the project. I actually got a lot of responses and ended up collecting around 5,000 books over the summer and that was really awesome. experience and we brought them back to East Lansing,” said UKirk member Claire Benson. “Now we just go through them, sort them and distribute them to the community.”

The two say Mid-Michigan is a great place to collect and collect books because they can donate those books to many different organizations nearby.

“The idea is to have them be local organizations and so places like shelters, community centers, laundromats, food banks, any place like this is interested, that’s where we go and it will be an ongoing project.”

This is where you can help.

Currently, you can drop off used or new children’s books for all ages up to grade 5, especially books that display diversity.

Examples of the types of books they want can be found on a wishlist at the organization’s website.

New books purchased online can be mailed or shipped to:

UKirk Book Project

1315 Abbot Road

East Lansing, Michigan 48823

Where

Books can be dropped off Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the address above.

They also have a book box so books can be donated at any time.

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