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{The Blue Banner}
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Alumni project encourages community reading
Teresa Linn
TCLINN@UNCA.EDU
STAFF WRITER
The Pages Opening People Project,
a literacy advocacy nonprofit organi
zation, challenges all electronic book
receivers to give back what they get,
according to POP secretary and UNC
Asheville graduate Sarah Giavedoni.
“It’s the paper-to-bytes program,”
Giavedoni said. “We thought it would
be far more creative and kind of re
mind people that as they update their
libraries to think of others. With the
growing popularity of e-books and
all things digital, we are challenging
people who get Kindles or other e-
book devices to donate one real paper
book to a charity this season for every
e-book they receive.”
Project director and fellow UNCA
graduate Jim MacKenzie said his re
search in e-book sales statistics led to
the idea for the unconventional book
promotion.
“I saw a lot of research and believable
figures that the e-book and the Kindle
are going to be some of the hottest
selling items this Christmas season.
I saw one estimate that they’re prob
ably going to sell well over $ 1 billion
worth during the Christmas season.
That’s a lot of money. We’ve crunched
the numbers and figured that’s a lot of
books,” MacKenzie said.
The POP Project began in 2009 and
continues due to the help of UNCA
graduates, including Giavedoni,
MacKenzie and treasurer Alex Fisher.
MacKenzie said he originally got the
idea for the organization from an issue
in his personal life.
“I have a pen pal on death row
in North Carolina, Melvin Hardy,”
MacKenzie said. “He told me how
much he loves to read and how much
of a lack of books there were for him.
I found that many people make it a
very low priority to make sure that a
lot of the inmates, especially those on
death row, get books. I figured starting
a nonprofit would be one of the best
ways to facilitate getting books.”
POP delivered books to death row
prisons in a few states and also distrib
uted books locally.
This October, they conducted a Span
ish language book drive with UNCA’s
Hispanic student group HOLA.
“We took them one of our drop boxes
and sent them some informational ma
terial about the drive itself and about
Photo courtesy of Jim MacKenzie
Jim MacKenzie, left center, and Sarah Giavedoni, right center, stand with other members ot the Pages
Opening People Project. The project aims to encourage people holiday shopping for e-books, like
Kindles, to donate paper books to those who aren’t able to buy their own books.
“We have a Facebook page which
is easy to get to, and Fm going to be
trying to raise as much awareness of it
through interviews and appearances,”
MacKenzie said.
MacKenzie said in spreading the
gift of literature, it is also important to
practice and promote the act of read
ing.
“Keep reading,” MacKenzie said.
“You are not alone. Be proud of lit
eracy. Make sure that when you’re
out reading, you hold your book high.
Don’t sit in the comer and cover it up-
Be proud, show people that reading
and literacy is nothing to be ashamed
of.”
According to Giavedoni, amid all
the shoppers donating and giving gifts
this season, it is important to remem
ber books.
“There’s a constant need for books
in prisons, children’s programs, wom
en’s shelters, homeless shelters, even
through churches. This is the season
for donating, and books are definitely
an item that shouldn’t be overlooked,”
Giavedoni said.
“With the growing popularity of e-books
and ail things digital we are challenging
people who get Kindles or other e-book
devices to donate one real paper book to
charity this season.”
— Sarah Giavedoni,
Pages Opening People Project member
the need for Spanish language books.
They helped us by trying to gather as
many books as they could,” Giavedoni
said.
According to Mackenzie, not only
does the group want to make books
available, they also want to promote
reading as a hobby and an activity.
“We feel it’s also our job to advo
cate for books,” Mackenzie said. “For
years, study after study shows that
children, adults, and senior citizens are
all reading less and less. We want to let
people know that it is OK to read. You
shouldn’t be ashamed of reading. You
should be proud of literacy.”
MacKenzie said POP will devote
much of their holiday time to the
bytes-for-books challenge, which be
gan on black Friday.