Staff Report

Boxes of books wait to be shipped for the African Library Project after being collected by elementary schools in Newberry County as part of a project spearheaded by Keep Newberry County Beautiful.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_IMAG0199.jpgBoxes of books wait to be shipped for the African Library Project after being collected by elementary schools in Newberry County as part of a project spearheaded by Keep Newberry County Beautiful. Danielle Rowe | For The Newberry Observer

NEWBERRY — A book drive organized by Keep Newberry County Beautiful ended up collecting more than 7,100 books — yes, you read that correctly — with Boundary Street Elementary leading the way with just over 4,000 books to its credit.

Danielle Rowe, executive director of Keep Newberry County Beautiful, said the books will be sent to the African Library Project, which takes donated books and uses them to set up a library — if she can find a way to pay for the shipping.

Rowe said the response by the schools was far greater than she anticipated so now with an estimated cost of $300 to $500 to ship 1,000 books, a quick math lesson can tell you that it will cost almost as much as the number of books collected by Boundary Street.

Whew. That’s a lot of books!

“They are all educational books and current books that are not greater than 15 years old,” Rowe said of the collection. “It’s kind of cool being able to help benefit the kids from the elementary schools with tablets for their goal with books because their impact will put a bigger impact on the kids in Africa.”

Rowe said anyone wanting to help fund the shipping can contact her at 803-276-1978, extension 101, to discuss helping get the books to their destination.

Eight elementary schools in Newberry County participated: Gallman, Boundary Street, Newberry, Prosperity-Rikard, Little Mountain, Pomaria-Garmany, Reuben, and Whitmire Community School.

The school that had the most books was Boundary Street with 4,027 books and for their feat, the school will receive tablets.

The totals, by school, were:

• Gallman: 915

• Boundary Street: 4,027

• Newberry: 1,508

• Prosperity-Rikard: 227

• Little Mountain: 420

• Pomaria-Garmany: still counting

• Reuben: 6

• Whitmire Community School: still counting

Rowe said she plans to wait about a year to do another book drive. “I’m going to wait about a year and when 2018 pops up, I will do another drive maybe with the high schools or college next time,” she said.