Our house clean up continues. We were faced with hundreds of books read and collected over 2 decades that have piled up in various closets and dresser drawers. After inundating our local public library with boxes of books, my daughter Elizabeth came up with a better idea.
Unbeknownst to Maureen and I, there is a nonprofit that collects books for overseas US military personnel. You are able to go on to their website create an account and then be able to view requests from overseas military personnel.
The requests are for general categories of books which allowed us to box up books which matched their general requests such as history, biographies, etc..
You can sign up as a volunteer for the “Books for Soldiers” (BSF) online. Once you are approved as an Official BFS Volunteer, you will be given access to their online bulletin board and review the requests posted from soldiers, airmen, marines, and sailors; there are hundreds of them! Scroll through the names and pick someone whose request has not yet been filled.
The website also has requests from larger units of troops (e.g., platoons, companies); you may be especially interested in responding to these requests if you have a large number of books or other items to send.
My daughter helped to box up the books and then we got the best surprise. We were happy to help these men and women, but thought how much would cost to send a box of heavy books to Kuwait or Iraq. Well it turns out that’s not necessary.
When we got to the stage of actually shipping them, it turns out that the books just have to get it to a military facility in the United States. In our case it was to a New York address so the cost was very reasonable.
You can find out more about this operation by clicking on the link below:
Books for Soldiers
BooksForSoldiers.com is a Red Grail charity, a Not-For-Profit corporation registered in North Carolina. Books For Soldiers is owned and operated by the Red Grail Ministries, a non-denominational, interfaith outreach ministry and is a 501(c)(3) charity recognized by the IRS.
The nonprofit also accepts cash donations as well. They have been in business since 2003.
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