Thom Weiss from the Madison Breakfast Club spoke to us about his Club’s role in collecting used books for dispatch overseas. A Houston Rotary Club originated the program and manages it today. But Madison Breakfast plays a significant role in gathering books, packing them, and shipping them to Houston. They had sixteen packing sessions in 2017; our Club participated in filling boxes with donated books. Books come from libraries and schools. They’re mostly math, science, and kids’ books, with some fiction. The program started in 2000, when two Rotarians – one from Texas and one from South Africa – met at a Rotary Conference. The project was soon born, given that the U.S. is awash in used books and the need in South Africa is great. Wisconsin joined the project in 2007. Last year Wisconsin sent seven semis loaded with 5,847 boxes of books (and desks) on 126 pallets to Texas for shipment overseas to South Africa and many other places around the globe – Central and South America, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. |  Thom Weiss, Madison Breakfast Club |
