Over the past two years PFW have been huge supports of The Library Project.  They have donated three libraries and will also donate another two libraries in 2010.  What makes PFW such a special donor is how their employees get involved.  Their employees most recently conducted a book, educational toy and school supply collection campaign at their factory in Yanliang, China.  PFW then donated the items to The Library Project at their annual Chinese New Year Party.  Below are some great photos of the PFW team, the items they donated and the party.

These donated items will go into rural elementary schools in Lantian County in the Shaanxi Province.  Thank you PFW!

Well, after three years of being an IRS recognized 501(c)3 charity, the IRS have FINALLY put us on their website.  This has taken well over 50 phone calls, letters submitted, letters received, and a mountain of bureaucracy.  From what I understand, it was a simple clerical error that kept our organization off of the IRS website when we filed three years ago.  To celebrate this occasion, please click here to see our wonderful page on the IRS website.  I cannot put into words how happy we are to have this complete.

The Peninsula Beijing just completed a book collection to support The Library Project.  They collected 150 hi-quality Chinese language children’s books through a “Children’s Party” for their employee’s children. They collected a wide range of children’s books that included: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, books for very young readers, children’s reference books, and an assortment of comic books.

These books will go into a school located in the Shaanxi Province in the coming months.  We will be complimenting their donation of used books with new books.  Book collections like these really help us keep our costs down, but also get more books into the hands of eager young readers.  We’ll keep you posted as to the progress of their books finding a new home.

The Peninsula Beijing learned about The Library Project through a book collection conducted by ClarkMorgan at one of their recent free “demo” courses.

Time Out Shanghai just wrote a great article on The Library Project.  It is in their February 2010 edition.  Thank youRebecca Kanthor for reaching out to our organization.  Take a look at it by clicking on the link below:

Time Out Shanghai February 2010 Article

有故事陪伴的童年是幸福的，一个个精彩童话把我们带进了七个小矮人的小木屋，和孙悟空一起三打白骨精，与皮皮鲁，鲁西西一快儿冒险。。。

把你的美好记忆当作一份小小的礼物与乡村小学的孩子们，孤儿院的孩子们一起来分享吧！

打开你的书柜，看看你的书架上是否有你愿意与他们分享的图书吧！因为对于这些孩子来说，你的一份馈赠帮助他们了解一个世界！

由图书馆计划发起的全国图书募集活动正在如火如荼的进行着，要是您正发愁怎么处理家里的儿童图书，或者您对于中国的农村小学教育十分关注并愿意奉献您的力量，请点击图书馆计划的中文博客链接，来了解我们吧！

图书馆计划为落后地区的乡村小学和孤儿院捐赠儿童图书和图书馆。我们相信，知识是消除贫困的关键，知识就是改变。

在图书馆计划的中文博客里，我们的成员会为您带来捐赠活动背后的故事，和您分享我们一路走来的心路历程，也欢迎您通过我们的博客和中文网站以最适合您的方式加入到我们这个大家庭中来。

让我们为了让世界变得更美好来一起努力吧！

It looks like it took 225 rural elementary school and orphanage library donations for The Library Project to hit an (online) encyclopedia.  We now have a digital space on the pages of Wikipedia.  :-)

We’re going to be adding a lot of our library statics, locations and goals to this page over the next couple of months.  Take a gander at the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_Project

A huge thank you goes out to Alice Stader (my little sister) for all her help making this happen.

As of January 2010, The Library Project has established 225 elementary school libraries.  We’ve put more than 150,000 Chinese language children’s books into the hands of eager young readers.  Over 50,000 children now have access to improved educational infrastructure.  Together we are changing the world, one book at a time.

The Nexus, a Library Project student group at the Shanghai High School International Division, has just completed a their most recent fundraiser.  On New Years Eve, Japanese students from the Shanghai High School International Division held a concert in downtown Shanghai that raised 3,700 CNY for The Nexus.  They sold tickets to students (50rmb/ticket).  It was an awesome night!

To date, The Nexus have held book collections and raised funds for four libraries.  This Spring The Library Project will be donating The Nexus’ FOURTH library to a rural elementary school located in the Shaanxi Province.  A huge thank you to everyone at The Nexus for your continued support.

Below are two group photos of the group.

Nexus Group Photo

Nexus Group Photo

ABOUT THE NEXUS

The Nexus is a student organization founded by Stephany Phung and Emma Harada that was established in 2008 at the Shanghai High School International Division. The Nexus’ mission is to be an extension of The Library Project, reaching out to the people of Shanghai radiating from within the school. Their goal is to raise funds to support The Library Project’s mission.

To learn more about The Nexus, please check out their website at: http://www.library-project.org/nexus.html

Everyone at The Library Project is very excited about our newly updated Blog.  This new design brings our blog into our website.  It is much brighter, easier to get around and hopefully will be a much better experience for everyone.

We hope you enjoy it.  Have a nice day.

Kind regards,
Tom Stader
The Library Project Founder

Jennifer traveled all the way from Sweden with her friend Tarlan to volunteer for two weeks with The Library Project.  They both were absolutely amazing.  They helped with fundraising at our annual fundraiser in Xi’an, China…..and they also helped us donate libraries to the Sichuan Province.  We all miss them very much, but understand that they have to go back to High School (boring).  Below is a blog that they have been keeping about their experience with The Library Project.  Their expenses were sponsored by Grycksbo Paper, a Swedish paper company that has been a huge Library Project supporter this past year.  A link to their blog and also Jennifer’s most recent post has been republished below.  Thank you Jennifer and Tarlan!

Their Blog

http://paperaid.wordpress.com/

—

Hi again everyone!

Finally I am finished with my own story. The first thing I can tell you is that I am in love with China; Xi’an, the peoples, the children, Baoxing, the food, almost everything. During the last week I have been watching all the pictures from our weeks in China. – I have to say that I am missing everything.

When we came back from China it was so nice to meet my dear family and friends again, but in the same time is a part of me still in China. I have got one dream since I was a little girl. I have been dreaming about to working as a volunteer. And now, just turned 18, I am back from two fantastic weeks in China from a volunteer job with a great friend. So imagine my feelings when I now am watching myself beside all the children! I wanted to be a volunteer, I was a volunteer, I am a volunteer! What a fantastic feeling!

The two weeks in China went so fast, and it is first now, three weeks after we came back as I start to realize what we have done! I will say that I remember every day and night in China, but there are some special moments that I will never forget;

When we went to the second school, just 45 minutes from Baoxing, the school had already closed, so we packed up all the books with help from only a few students and some older relatives. When we started our way back to Baoxing and our hotel, we realized that the principal/headmaster was following us all the way down to the little village down the school. She invited us for dinner, but since we were late, we said no. She continued to invite us. It may sound like a weird moment to remember but for me it meant so much. If a person became so happy and thankful for some books, then all the works regarding the project felt so worth it. For us in the western world is all these stuff a usual part of our life’s, but for these people, is the books something new. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to teach a bunch of YOUNG students without the right books, or without any books at all!

Another special memory is when we one day went to a large Tibetan school. In the same moment as we went out of the car lot of students gathered around. They started to laugh and point at us! I have never been “famous” before, haha!

All the time we spent together with Jenny and Jocelyn (The Library Project’s “Country Director” and “Library Donation Lead”) was something very important for me. I have learned a lot from them during our days together. I am so impressed about their choices to work with an important organization; they are travelling around the whole China every year to help children!  They told us a lot of interesting facts about China, the people and the culture, they were also two really funny and kind girls, which made my whole trip in China easier.

All the time we spent with the young students makes me so happy. To see their smiles when we came and when all of them were carrying the books was great! It is in moments like that I realized how lucky I am in my own life; and how easy it is to give other people happiness!

I have now been home for three weeks, but one day won´t pass without me thinking about China. I have grown a lot during these weeks. To know that I am able to travel to the other side of the world with one friend, it feels great. I have been visiting villages and counties where people are living and studying in poor places. I have been traveling on roads that we in Sweden never would be using.  I have actually helped so many children during my weeks, together with Tarlan and the team I have helped the children to a better future. I have also been lucky to meet such amazing peoples! Tom, Jenny, Jocelyn, Nicole and Belinda at the Library-Project, Jenny at Grycksbo Paper and people like Lisa and Ivy in Xi’an!

These are my experiences from my weeks in China. You will hear from me again!

Love, Jenn

Grycksbo Paper have been huge supports of The Library Project through raising awareness and funds over the past year.  Their “G Print is ON” campaign just won the “Promotional/Sales/Marketing Campaign” of the Year at the PPI Awards.  Over the past year Grycksbo Paper helped support TLP through including us on the campaign that won first place, they donate all profits from their “I Love Paper” t-shirts, and have collected donations.  Grycksbo Paper even sponsored two Swedish High School students to come and volunteer with our organization for two weeks last month.  They are an amazing company.  Please take a moment to read their press release below, and check out their website.

http://www.grycksbopaper.com/

GRYCKSBO PAPER RECEIVES AN ‘OSCAR’

Grycksbo Paper has won the category ‘Promotional/Sales/Marketing Campaign of the Year’ for its ‘G Print is ON’ campaign at the PPI Awards 2009 gala in Munich. The main media channel for the award winning campaign is the internet and consists of humorous and surprising film sequences showing people struggling in a paperless world, as well as a campaign website with information and offers.

The PPI Awards are the paper industry’s equivalent to the film industry’s ‘Oscar’ awards. In the PPI Awards 2009, industry companies competed in ten different categories following earlier nominations. Grycksbo Paper was a nominated finalist in three of them: Promotional/Sales/Marketing Campaign of the Year, Business Strategy of the Year, and Environmental Strategy of the Year – Company.

Commenting on the ‘G Print is ON’ campaign’s success the judges said:  ‘This winning campaign has been described as outstanding and brilliant by the judges – an entry which shows an impressive marketing strategy, utilising digital media with confidence, while at the same time encouraging increased paper usage. It is a campaign with a clear target audience and specific messages which shows an outstanding breakaway approach.”

On receiving the award, Mikael Frölander, MD Grycksbo Paper, said, ‘It is absolutely fantastic that Grycksbo Paper was not only a finalist in three categories, but also that we won one of the most prestigious. It is important to get our message across about the advantages of paper and the printed word, for us, as well as for the whole paper industry.

‘Renewal is needed in the paper industry, so when the idea about a cheeky and humorous campaign using the internet came up, it was a logical step to take. We have got many positive reactions from our customers, as well as from the paper trade.’

Jaana Ahlroos, Sales and Marketing Manager at Grycksbo Paper said, ‘Winning the PPI Awards 2009 for the best Promotional/Sales/Marketing Campaign of the Year is a great honour for us. We are not the biggest paper company, but we were prepared to go outside the traditional box with this, the first digital media promotional campaign in the industry. The saying “Do not go where the path may lead; rather go instead where there is no path and lead a trail” fits us very well.’

The winning campaign’s film sequences showing situations where paper is the only thing that works can be found on the campaign site www.gprint.com/paperaid as well as on YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo.

An important part of the campaign is the support for “The Library Project,” which donates books and libraries to under-funded schools and orphanages in the developing world. On the site visitors can donate money as well as buy T-shirts, with profits going to “The Library Project.”

The Nexus, a student group at the Shanghai High School International Division, held a book collection on October 19-23 collectiong books for donation to The Library Project.  Take a look at the great photos below.

To date The Nexus have raised enough funds and books for three elementary library donations.  Check out the link below to their student group’s page on our website to see photos of some of the happy kids that have received a donation of a library because of their support.

http://www.library-project.org/nexus.html

A huge thank you goes out to everyone at The Nexus!

ABOUT THE NEXUS

The Nexus is a student organization founded by Stephany Phung and Emma Harada that was established in 2008 at the Shanghai High School International Division. The Nexus’ mission is to be an extension of The Library Project, reaching out to the people of Shanghai radiating from within the school. Their goal is to raise funds to support The Library Project’s mission.

To learn more about The Nexus, please check out their website at: http://www.library-project.org/nexus.html