On September the 6th I, along with many other generous Stockton students and faculty, attended Stockton’s annual Day of Service in the hopes of finding an activity that was both fun and linked to an organization that was really meaningful to me. When I arrived at the campus center that morning, I signed in and received a list of different organizations that were at the event. The list was extensive and included many organizations that dealt with many problems in the community from homelessness, to pollution, to animal abuse; all great causes that my friends and I spent a long while before hand debating which one we would choose to support.

However, I did have one charity that had been pressing on my mind for days beforehand: Books Without Borders. This organization holds a special place in my heart because books have played such a huge role in my life. I love to read because somehow reading about these people whom I feel I really know go through terrible time and come through stronger just makes reality seem a little easier. I was so excited to give the amazing gift of knowledge, entertainment and (in some small way) companionship to children who had the same lust for learning I had, but were not fortunate enough to have the opportunities I did.

So I quickly joined the Books Without Borders table and in no time we were trudging past the school to a small field by the Arts and Sciences building where we began unloading and entire storage unit filled to the brim with boxes and boxes of books. Our first task was to take all of these boxes out of the storage unit onto the lawn. This was hot sweaty work, considering the unit conserved all of the sun’s heat from that hot summer day, and some of boxes were so heavily packed with books it took two people to carry them. However, soon all of the books were out and we began sorting them into categories like fiction, biographies, politics, and psychology.

Now I had decided beforehand to do a little something special for my favorite charity and had brought colorful note cards, envelopes, a pen, and tape with me to try out my little project. As I sorted through books I kept my eye out for books I had already read and when I found one (with the permission of my supervisor) I would take a minute and write a little message to the new owner of the book. I would thank him/her for picking the book tell him/her why I loved it (it made me laugh, it made me cry, etc.) then I would ask him/her to give the book a good home and say I hoped he/she had a lovely day. Then I put the note in the envelope and taped it to the inside cover of the book.

This was an absolutely amazing experience and my only hope in doing this is that I 1.) made someone with an extremely hard life have a slightly nicer day, and 2.) that these books inspired at least one child to have a love of learning. I truly believe that if you teach a man to fish he eats for the rest of his life, but if you teach a man to read he can do what he wants to do for the rest of his life.