RELEASED: December 31, 2009

By Leigh Ivey

DANVILLE, KY—The Centre College community does not stop giving gifts when the holidays are over.

As the new year begins, students, faculty and staff will collaborate to fill bookshelves for Habitat for Humanity homeowners. From children's stories to works of non-fiction such as cookbooks and travel literature, the donated books will be given to families in the local community, along with the bookshelves that Centre folks will construct.

"The bookshelves provided to these families will be stocked with age- and content-appropriate books for their entire family—parents and children," says Kate Wintuska '13, an executive member of Centre Action Reaches Everyone (C.A.R.E.) who is helping organize the project.

The project was inspired by Ty Carter '13, who organized a similar book drive for Habitat for Humanity last year.

Although the book drive will officially take place this CentreTerm, many members of the College community have already donated books.

"The faculty's been really involved, and we've had a lot of interest among students as well," says Laura Beth Griffith '10, C.A.R.E. executive member. "We asked students to collect books over winter break and bring them back this CentreTerm. And in January, there'll be a bin in The Hub Coffee House for the community to drop off their books."

After Centre volunteers build the bookshelves on Jan. 23, Centre's Habitat for Humanity members will help deliver the shelves.

"We're unsure of the number of families who will receive a bookshelf, but we're hoping for 15," Griffith says. "Next year, we're planning to aim much higher since we will better understand how this will work."

Though this is the first time Centre has undertaken the project, the motivation of the participants is sure to make it a success.

"So far, there's been great enthusiasm for the project, and Kate and I have received a lot of help from C.A.R.E. committee members," Griffith says. "They distributed flyers in businesses throughout the community, have helped us pick up books from donors, and have helped with other kinds of advertising as well."

Next year, the C.A.R.E. team hopes to expand the project to Lexington and the surrounding areas.

"It's been a great learning experience, and we're hoping that this year will lay the foundation for the project so that in years to come it will be even better," Griffith says.

To help the C.A.R.E. team make the first book drive a success, students, faculty and staff are reminded to collect children's books during the winter break and place them in the bins located in Centre's residence halls and the Campus Center. 

"As members of the Centre Community, we all have a favorite book or an author that we cherish or consider life-changing," Wintuska says. "It's this passion for literature that we hope to share with the local community."

Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail leigh.ivey@centre.edu with your feedback.

- end -

Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.