We’ve started the new year running with lots of new things happening at Making Spirits Bright! We have new team members, new community partners, a new way to recycle old books, new programming, new funding, some new books and lots of new ideas.
MSB is excited to have two new board members to start the new year.
The first is Lindsey Casetta. She has been a valued team member since MSB’s inception. She jumped right in, taking on a role helping us integrate and interpret our data. We have so many books coming in and out and her work is invaluable. When we began MSB Free Book Fairs, she was there, volunteering her time and working the fairs. She goes above and beyond helping children find books that are just right for them. And she has now added the role of facilitating book sorting and managing volunteers. She knows the ins and outs of all we do and we are delighted that she has accepted the role of board member too.
The second is Ashley Estes-Crowley. Ashley is a devoted wife, mom of two, and a full-time professional in adult learning and enablement. Born and raised in Detroit, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Broadcast & Cinematic Arts from Central Michigan University. A lifelong lover of books and the written word, she joins Making Spirits Bright to share her passion for the transformative power and boundless imagination that books inspire. Ashley also studies American Sign Language (ASL) and is a fierce advocate and ally for disability education and accessibility, reflecting her commitment to creating inclusive and equitable opportunities for all.
We are looking forward to their viewpoint and ideas for MSB.
BOOK DRIVES
We wrapped up 2024 with so many people hosting book drives! We started the New Year with oodles of new to us books.
Walled Lake Methodist Church collected almost 700 books, 1552 books from Keith Elementary, Meadowbrooke Elementary brought in 1246 books, 952 from Stuck Gymnastics, 630 books collected by Wayne State Track & Field and over 2000 books from the Rising Stars Academy.
Heart of Michigan- Girl Scout Troop 40554 from Round Elementary collected and delivered 1768 books to the MSB headquarters.
Students at Catholic Central High School completed a service project and collected 2088 books.
A huge shout out to our friend Lisa from Food and Family, she incorporated a book drive into her weekly food deliveries during the month of December! As she brought local families their dinner, they gave her 1122 gently used children’s books.
And the Friends of the Library from Walled Lake and Whitmore Lake donated their withdrawn children’s books to us.
Please reach out to us if you’d like to host a book drive.
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NEW BOOKS
Sustainability is important to us, so we source most of our like new, gently used books from community book drives. However, there are some books that are in such high demand (journals, graphic novels, and diverse books), that we frequently need to acquire them new. Our board member, Erica Brennan, purchased 192 journals to be distributed at MSB Free Book Fairs. And our non-profit partner , First Book Marketplace gifted us 230 books with diverse characters.
Check out our Amazon Wishlist with some of these super high demand titles, if you’d like to purchase a book for a child in an underserved community.
SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION
Making Spirits Bright provides Free Book Fairs to schools in areas that are classified as book deserts. The majority of children living in book deserts do not have access to books in their homes. Early literacy is a huge indicator of later in life success. MSB is providing these children age appropriate books to become more proficient readers.
MSB visited and provided Free Book Fairs at Beacon Elementary in Harper Woods and Holbrook Elementary in Hamtramck. We learned that Holbrook is the oldest school, still in operation in Michigan. It’s over 130 years old. Thousands of books were gifted with every student self selected five books and a book tote bag to take home.
COMMUNITY DISTRIBUTION
MSB is keeping the book shelves full at Hospitality House, Easter Seals and All Things Women. We provide a welcome kit with books for new families. As families continue to receive assistance they are encouraged to take books from the shelves for their homes every time they come in. Because we know that children are more successful when they have access to books.
Maria and a couple of our all star volunteers provided an MSB At Home Library Program at Brilliant Detroit‘s Brightmoor Hub. They put on a story time and shared tips with the parents to engage their kids in reading. The children painted and decorated their own mini-libraries to take home and self-selected 15 books each to fill them.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
We are now a member of Share Detroit! Share Detroit is a community engagement conduit offering simple ways for neighbors, nonprofits and businesses to come together and strengthen our local community. They make it easy for people to find local nonprofits and engage with them how they choose, whether it’s donating money, volunteering time, attending an event or buying much needed items from nonprofit wish lists. Their platform amplifies the needs of the entire nonprofit community, giving all organizations a chance to be seen and heard regardless of size, focus area or budget. They believe that by doing good together, we create a stronger, happier Detroit.
BOOK RECYCLING
We are so thrilled about our new partnership with Georgia Pacific of Wisconsin! It was a struggle finding a way to recycle books that were too damaged to distribute, and thanks to the GFL recycling center in Royal Oak and Georgia Pacific our unusable books are now being transformed into paper towels. MSB has recycled over 12,000 books in just a couple of months. Sustainability is important to us and that’s over six tons of material that didn’t end up in a landfill.
VOLUNTEERS
New Year, new all star volunteer team members at Making Spirits Bright!
We love collecting and gifting books. However, there is so much more that happens behind the scenes at a Non-Profit and we’ve been searching for someone to volunteer their time to do our bookkeeping. Alaina Finkel has graciously offered to fill the role and keep our finances in order.
Alaina is a wife and a mother of two. Born and raised in the metro Detroit area, Alaina earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Michigan State University and her Masters of Business Administration from Wayne State University. In her spare time, she loves to read, exercise and spend time with her family!
Our amazing volunteer, Andrea Sullivan, has taken on a lot of responsibility in the New Year and is gifting us her time multiple times a month. Andrea is a clinical research nurse, mom to a middle schooler, and avid reader. She enjoys volunteering at book fairs to share in the excitement of finding a great book. She coordinates and facilitates book sorting at our headquarters and facilitates and works our MSB Free Book Fairs. Thanks to her dedication, we are able to get more books into the hands of children.
We are grateful for our collaboration with Ford Motor Company’s volunteer program. They sent us a wonderful group of volunteers this month.
And as always we have tons of students sorting books. We had a large group from Novi Christian School spend a day volunteering at our HQ. And the weekends are dominated by National Honor Society student volunteers. I really enjoy spending time with these young people, and hearing about their ambitions and goals.
Service is a huge part of scouting and we love when MSB is the recipient. The Heart of Michigan-Girl Scout Troop 40554 from Round Elementary collected 1768 books for MSB and spent an afternoon at our HQ sorting their donations. And Great Lakes Council-Cub Scout Pack 121 packed 150 MSB Welcome Kits for our partners- Hospitality House and Easter Seals. When new families start receiving benefits from these community partners they are given one of our welcome kits with books for their homes.
Students at Catholic Central High School collected 2088 books for us in December. Our director Maria, spent a day at their school helping them sort their donations and wrap books to be gifted to children at our partner Hospitality House.
We are always in need of volunteers, if you or someone you know might be interested in this, please reach out to hello@makingspiritsbright.org or signup here.
FUNDRAISING
It’s a new year and we received a new grant! Detroit Women in Business awarded us $5325! Detroit Women in Business’s goal is to help women business leaders in Detroit build connections, while doing good for the greater community.
There are lots of new additions for sale in our Ebay Store! We sell a few of the adult and vintage books we receive to offset the cost of our programming.
Do you give gift cards to your friends, family, teachers? We have collaborated with RaiseRight to fundraise. When you purchase your gift cards from RaiseRight they donate a percentage of your purchase to us. There is no additional cost to you, just a wonderful donation to Making Spirits Bright from your purchase. Check out their website here, and click the “join program’ button to see all the gift card options.
Come visit us and donate your gently used books at our new location. 28580 Orchard Lake Rd, Suite 201, Farmington Hills, 48334. Our hours vary and are listed here.
Tracy, Distribution Leader
PS We are a 501(c)3 and accept monetary donations from individuals and organizations. Please consider donating here.
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