[ShareTompkins] Urgent Book Drive for Prisoner's Express at the Durland Alternative's Library, Cornell

[A Wilson]

Dear Friends,

I have been volunteering with Prisoner's Express at the Durland  
Alternatives Library for a while now, and taking Louis with me since  
school has ended for the year. While other students and volunteers  
have been preparing courses and newsletters for the prison  
participants or preparing their work for publication in inmate  
newsletters and booklets, Louis and I have spent most of our volunteer  
time selecting, packing, and mailing books for the book program. The  
more I work with Prisoner's Express the happier I am to participate,  
as the letters from the people in prison express gratitude and a deep  
desire to have reading material for serious study, general learning,  
and for pleasure.

We are having a fundraising book drive for Prisoner's Express and I am  
writing you with the hope that you may have textbooks or other books  
(e.g. poetry, carpentry, gardening, electronics, spanish, german or  
other books for people learning new languages, science books,  
almanacs, history books, yoga books, chess books, etc.) you might be  
willing to donate to Prisoner's Express.  Donated books will be sent  
to inmates or sold to raise funds for postage.

A letter from Gary Fine, the head of Prisoner's Express, is attached  
to this email. It explains the program in detail and I hope you will  
read it.

I also am asking for your help in passing this letter along to other  
professors or friends you know who might have text books or other  
books they would be willing to donate to our book drive.

Gary is very happy to pick up donations from people's offices or homes  
or they can be brought directly to the Durland Alternatives Library at  
127 Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, NY   
14853-1001.

If you have any questions, Gary can be reached at either 607-255-6486   
or  mailto:gmf5 at cornell.edu.

All the best and thank you for your help,
Allison

Allison Wilson
phone: 1 (607) 319 0279
a.wilson at bioscienceresource.org

www.independentsciencenews.org
                          and
www.bioscienceresource.org
           "Good with Science"

Alternatives Library  ☼  Anne Carry Durland Memorial




July26, 2013

Dear Professor,



I would like to introduce you to a program, Prisoner Express, and ask  
for your support in furthering our mission to provide incarcerated  
individuals throughout the United States with quality used textbooks.  
This program began 11 years ago when we sent educational books to an  
inmate in Texas. We now serve over 2300 inmates with a variety of  
services.  You can go to www.prisonerexpress.org to get a better idea  
of what we are doing. The heart of our program is sending books into  
prisons.  As the number of inmates requesting services rises, so do  
our outreach efforts to get books and the funding for the postage and  
photocopying costs our program requires.

I am writing you with the hope that you may have textbooks or other  
books you might be willing to donate to this program.  Donated books  
will be sent to inmates or sold to raise funds for postage.  We  
receive hundreds of letters every month from inmates telling us how  
valuable our service is. Many inmates are kept in segregated housing,  
which means they hardly ever leave their cell.  The boredom and  
alienation endured by inmates does not help in the rehabilitation  
process. It can lead to meaner and angrier people on the street.  
Sending books into prisons not only gives inmates a chance to better  
educate themselves, but it lets them know they are not forgotten. It  
makes a real difference in how they view life. It is not unusual for  
us to get a thank you letter from an inmate that lets us know our book  
package is the first mail they’ve gotten in years, and how much it  
means to them.

Your donation of textbooks can be a great gift to someone who is  
trying to right the course of his or her life.  Please know that many  
of the inmates we serve are very bright and the books you send will  
not be too difficult for them to use. There are all types of people in  
prison, just as in our “free world” society.  I would estimate that  
75% of the inmates we serve are in jail due to the problems caused by  
addiction to expensive illegal drugs. These inmates want to spend  
their time productively and creatively. It is the aim of this program  
to aid them in this pursuit and with your help we will be successful.

We have no source of regular funds and rely on donations and  
fundraising efforts to keep going. Donations to this program are tax  
deductible. Any help you can provide will be appreciated.

We have volunteers who would be willing to come and pick up your  
donations, or they can be brought or mailed to the Durland  
Alternatives Library. Please contact us if you have books to donate or  
you would like to receive our latest newsletter of program information  
and inmate writings.

Thank you for your consideration.



Gary Fine

Assistant Director Durland Alternatives Library

alt-lib at cornell.edu

607-255-6486



This project is sponsored by the Durland Alternatives Library, a  
project partner of the Center for Transformative Action

with support from the Cornell Public Service Center.



127 Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, NY   
14853-1001

TEL: 607-255-6486   FAX: 607-255-9985   EMAIL: alt-lib at cornell.edu   
WEB: www.alternativeslibrary.org

A Project Partner of CTA—The Center for Transformative Action


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/sharetompkins/attachments/20130730/bae46870/attachment-0002.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Prisoner'e Express book drive letter.doc
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 1003008 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/sharetompkins/attachments/20130730/bae46870/attachment-0001.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/sharetompkins/attachments/20130730/bae46870/attachment-0003.html>