This year, the Rotary Club of Rochester Southwest has been actively participating in District 7120's Rotary's Books for the World (RBFTW) initiative by collecting, sorting, and packing books scheduled for disposal which might otherwise be thrown into landfills, shredded or incinerated. The Second Wind Foundation then ships them to third world countries around the world where educational resources are greatly needed. Books are distributed to needy schools, some of which have no building, no books and no school supplies, with many teachers saying they never before had books from which to teach. Many of the children this project reaches have never held a book, let alone learned how to read one.
Approximately once a month, Rotarians around District 7120 gather at a warehouse in Chili, New York, to meticulously sort through hundreds of books donated by local school districts and community members. We box them by category ( primary textbooks, secondary textbooks, children's library books, adult library books, etc.) and load them onto pallets until there are enough to fill a shipping container. In 2023, RBFTW of Western NY sent a shipment of books to the Second Wind Foundation, traveling 1,559 miles by truck to their warehouse in Texas. The shipment contained 28 pallets of books with 24 boxes per pallet, weighing approximately 2 tons. This equates to 672 boxes containing an estimated 12,500 books with an estimated value of $40,000. These books came from schools, libraries and individuals via the following Rotary clubs: Canandaigua, Fairport, Gates-Chili, Honeoye Falls-Mendon, Honeoye Lake, Newark, Odessa, Rochester, Rochester Southwest, Pittsford, Watkins-Montour and Wolcott.
RBFTW is a global literacy and educational project sponsored and supervised end-to-end by Rotarians. It’s a major, world-wide, non-profit organization sponsored by the Rotary Club of Seabrook, Texas and funded by the Second Wind Foundation. The overall goal of this project is to enhance literacy and education in third world countries while also promoting international understanding. Watch a short video of the initiative here.
Our club will hold a book drive for the Western NY RBFTW at the 19th Ward Community's Square Fair on Saturday, June 7, 2025, at Aberdeen Square. Start collecting your books now!
