[Feature] What is Altrusa Portland Gives Books?

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a lovely dinner to learn about an organization called The Altrusa Club of Portland, ME. And oh my gosh, did I learn! I was scribbling down notes just as quickly as I could throughout the presentation!

I was so blown away by one of their programs, called Altrusa Portland Gives Books, that I just had to talk about it here!

What is Altrusa Portland Gives Books?

This is just one of the many service-related projects the organization runs. Altrusa accomplishes its goal, getting books into the hands of children, in a number of ways.

Booksgiving
Altrusa Portland has held an event called Booksgiving for nonprofit organizations and local teachers. At this event, each attendee receives twenty-five books, which they can then keep for their school libraries or give to kids in need.

Books-A-Million Book Drive
You may have seen book drives in your local area before. I even wrote about one a few weeks ago. In this case, Altrusa Portland partners with Books-A-Million in South Portland, Maine and asks customers to purchase a book and donate it to Altrusa. Books-A-Million will offer recommendations, but customers can donate any book they like. These drives generally occur mid-November to mid-December, but some years they have also done a summer drive.

Holiday Gifting
One snag that Altrusa Portland ran into was that schools don’t allow donations of holiday-themed books. To get around this, they collect the books, wrap them in paper, mark them with colored dots to indicate age group, and donate them to local nonprofits that can then hand out the books during their holiday festivities.

ABC (Altrusa Books & Children) 
Every school year, Altrusa Portland visits local schools to read to kids. At the end of the reading session, the children are each given a book to keep!

Summer Learning Program
In the summertime, Altrusa Portland hosts a Summer Learning Day Picnic in Deering Oaks. At this event, they set up tables and let children choose a book to keep.

But that’s not all they do on the literary front! Altrusa Portland also donates gently used books to:

• Long Creek Youth Development Center
• Cumberland County Jail
• Windham Correctional Center

Thanks for reading!
What an incredible organization, right?!

If you’d like to learn more about Altrusa Portland Gives Books you can visit their website by clicking here.
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