Attention Costco Members

If you read about us in the July 2009 issue of Costco Connection, Book Wish Foundation has a challenge for you. Collectively, we are calling on the Costco community to help build a 5,000-book library in a Darfur refugee camp in eastern Chad. With a circulation of nearly 8 million, only a small fraction of the Connection's readers would need to contribute to enable us to break ground on a new library. The cost is about $10,000 for the 49' x 23' brick building, and if the Costco community can raise that, we'll do the rest to furnish the library with targeted books to improve the lives of about 20,000-30,000 refugees, especially the children, who are literate but have no children's books to read.

To participate in this challenge, donate whatever you can and make sure your donation is earmarked for library construction. Even at $5 per donor, just one quarter of one tenth of one percent of the Connection readers would have to participate to make this library a reality. Then, tell all the other Costco members you know – family, friends, anyone – and maybe show them the Connection article as inspiration. Here is a handy link to the article, "Changing the World": http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/200907/?folio=22. You can stay informed about the progress of this challenge by subscribing to our mailing list, following us on Twitter, or becoming a fan at Facebook.

For more information about library construction, with the most recent cost estimates, click here. Examples of book subjects that would be appropriate for the library, based on the refugees' needs and interests, include: family health care, small-scale farming, stories from their tribal traditions, HIV/AIDS, school reference books, peacebuilding.

Of course, if you support our reading relief mission, but prefer to help in a different way, we would welcome your contribution towards any item on our Wish Lists. The purpose of this challenge, though, is to accomplish an enormous goal together, which is out of reach for most individual donors.

As a reminder, Book Wish Foundation is a Federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity, so U.S. donors can receive a tax deduction. We are entirely staffed by volunteers, and, in our last fiscal year, our overhead was just 2%.