School is back in session and we have been distributing books into schools, at community centers and getting books onto shelves at our partners! To take this month to the next level, we moved our location from the first floor to the second floor of the building we rent at. Approximately 10,000 books were moved by our awesome volunteers (several of them our own husbands and children!)
BOOK DRIVES
We often get the question “Where do you get your books from?” Our main source of book donations are from local organizations hosting book drives. We have had an elementary school bring in more than 7K book donations!
In September, Carhartt’s IT department hosted a book drive and brought in almost 500 books. A fourth grade classroom led by Jessica Elkin at Wylie Elementary donated almost 3000 books! Another elementary school, Forest School in Farmington Hills, had their student leadership team collect a whopping 2800 books. Girl Scout Troop 112 that is located downriver, collected beautiful children’s books for us! Lastly, the OPEIU Local 494 UAW Gaming Department collected just under 800 books.
If you are interested in hosting a Book Drive, please sign up here!
LIBRARY PARTNERS
Friends of the Library organizations are very generous with their leftover books from their Used Book Sales. Thank you for both Whitmore Lake and White Lake libraries for their children’s, middle grade and YA titles that you gave us!
SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION
Teachers and administrative staff are talking about our Free Book Fair events!
This month MSB gifted books at Free Book fair in Hamtramck at Dickinson East. Every Student self-selected 5 books and a new book tote bag!
Later in the month, we visited Dixon Learning Academy in Detroit and provided a MSB Free Book Fair. We are blown away by the amazing feedback we received from them!
“Thank you soooooooooooooooooo much for investing in our students! Your organization clearly demonstrated the importance of reading. You went over and above supplying a variety of materials that our students were super excited about and actually had a hard time choosing what they wanted to read! That was a phenomenal task. Thank you again and you are always welcome to Dixon, just give me a time and we will make the space. Thanks a billion times!”
Mrs. Yolanda Smith, Assistant Principal
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COMMUNITY DISTRIBUTION
We are continuing Brilliant Detroit‘s Books At Home Family Literacy Nights. This month we visited both the Grixdale and Central locations. Watching the families work together painting their wooden library crates has become my favorite part of these special evenings. After they decorate their new home libraries they fill them with books to create their own home library.
Teachers often use their own money to purchase age appropriate books for their classrooms. We hosted our second Teacher’s Shop Free Day and our awesome attendees walked away with over 3000 books for their children!
We couldn’t keep up with our community distribution without the help of a generous volunteer, Renee Evans. Renee visits the Hospitality House Food Pantry twice a month and fills their shelves with fresh selections! Thank you so much Renee.
MSB attended a Fleece and Thank You blanket making event. They are a non-profit organization that gives blankets to children in hospitals. We were onsite to help and gift books to all of the children there.
VOLUNTEERS
This month we were connected with some women leaders who want to offer their time and talent to Making Spirits Bright! As a nonprofit organization, this came as a huge relief since many of our board members have been carrying the load of outreach and operations. Thank you to Kristen Lenz who will be working on grant writing. We appreciate Melissa Campbell who is currently working on SOPS. Nicole LaPorte has volunteered at in person events with us and is taking on a leadership role in helping us plan our Open House happening this fall.
We are always in need of volunteers, specifically to pick up books from book drives and to deliver books to our community partners. If you or someone you know might be interested in this, please let us know!
FUNDRAISING
We are focusing our fundraising efforts a little bit differently this fall. After Les Stanford Automotive Group donated generously to our book totes, we started fundraising money to purchase our most popular books.
Dine and donate! Thank you to Biggby Coffee at the Maple and Welch location in Commerce for collecting $254 by gifting $1 to us for each 20oz specialty drink.
Miriam Laundry Publishing presented us with a donation check of $2500 at their BELIEVE Conference for authors in Niagara Falls, Canada. Thank you to Miriam and her team!
Stop by to drop off books, visit us and see our new space.
28580 Orchard Lake Rd, Farmington Hills, MI 48334, Suite 210
P.S. We are a 501(c)3 and accept monetary donations from individuals and organizations. Please consider donating here.
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