Student Run Project: Books Through Bars

Our Special Olympics project wasn't the only service happening at Haverford this past weekend. One of our Student Run Projects, Books Through Bars, was also active, spending their Saturday working with a Philadelphia organization of the same name to fill book orders from prisons across the country. Isabel Clark, one of the project's chairs, sent us some information and some pictures:

With a van full of volunteers and books, donated by the Haverford College Bookstore, we headed into center city Philadelphia to The A-Space, a community space where Books through Bars is located. Books through Bars is a non-profit organization that promotes literacy and education within prisons, as well as awareness of the current status of the educational systems in prison to those outside its walls. Letters with requests for books come from all fifty states with a variety of interests--anything from GRE prep books to mystery novels. Receiving nearly 2,000 letters a month, Books through Bars always need volunteers to help read letters and fill requests, which is what we did while we were there. Books through Bars operates every Tuesday night out of The A-Space, as well as the first and third Saturday of every month. We hope to take another trip in the spring after the success of this year's fall trip.