June 17, 2016
Campus community encouraged to donate unused textbooks to students in Africa on June 20-21
A book collection drive at Kansas State University believes knowledge is a terrible thing to waste. Rather than letting old textbooks go unused, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to donate unwanted textbooks to Books 4 Cause.
Books 4 Cause is a nonprofit organization that donates excess textbooks to schools in Africa for educational purposes. Organization members travel to university campuses to personally collect books.
Books 4 Cause representatives will be on the K-State Manhattan campus June 20-21 to collect unwanted textbooks, CDs, DVDs and working electronic devices from the K-State community. Donation locations will be available throughout campus.
"Books 4 Cause is a charitable organization, in partnership with the African Library Project and the Peace Corps, which picks up educational materials from campuses nationwide, at no cost, and donates them to libraries and schools throughout Africa," said Dave Unis, doctoral candidate in biology, Manhattan. "I think that it would be great for the K-State community to be a part of this noble effort."
Unis decided to bring Books 4 Cause to campus after learning that many of the biology department's excess lab manuals for students had to be recycled each semester because the publisher will only accept a small percentage of the manuals to be returned.
"I'm sure that other departments across campus have excess or outdated textbooks, or other educational materials, that ultimately get recycled or thrown away," Unis said. "Although recycling is great I think the books could find a better use for others less fortunate."