Bookfruits was a charity suggested by Carole Frampton in a previous post (see if you post a suggestion about a charity and do so with enough passion, there’s a decent chance that eventually we’ll throw a bunch of money at them!).
I had the pleasure of speaking to the Bookfruits executive director, Reba Elliott. We spoke for a while mostly about her life, how she ended up creating Bookfruits, what types of services and activities they offer and what her plans were for the future.
Reba is one of those people where it’s just obvious from talking to her that she’s an incredibly goodhearted person. She left her job as the director of the English department in a university, which came with a very good salary, in order to start a non-profit from scratch, work endless amounts of hours, and make absolutely no money in return. It’s so difficult and admirable to take this leap of faith, from complete financial and professional security into the unknown. I was so happy just having spoken to her, as talking to someone with her enthusiasm for service and charity kept me exhilarated the rest of the day.
I asked her for a few short paragraphs on her program, as I figured she’d do a more accurate job explaining it than I would:
“Book Fruits’ mission is to change lives through the written word. Having known themselves the terrific power of the written word, its ability to enrich our humanity and open doors, Book Fruits’ staff believe that people in need deserve to own this power. Having seen first-hand that people in need know rock-bottom truths about their situations, they believe that the voices of these folks are ones we should heed.
In keeping with these two principles, Book Fruits harnesses the written word to improve communities bottom-up and top-down. Book Fruits performs direct service in its writing workshops. In the near future, Book Fruits will perform policy advocacy through a new website which will connect decision-makers with personal narratives from survivors of the toughest problems facing our society.
Book Fruits’ executive director, Reba Elliott, left a great job as a university Advisor to Student Media (a position equivalent to an Associate Director) to found the organization. This involved a 100% pay cut, and was completely worth it.”
Also I asked for some specific examples of what they do:
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- This fall, we’ll be leading 13 weekly writing workshops. We’ll be working with kids as young as 3 and as old as 16. We’re in schools, after-school programs, and a shelter for survivors of domestic violence.
- The story of one child in our workshops is illustrative of what we do. D. is a young man in our workshops (we’ll keep his identity to ourselves, because he is a minor). D. lives in a public housing tower in an area known for its drug violence. Young men selling drugs are posted outside the door to the tower, and kids without their parents roam its halls for hours. Poverty, humiliation, and the need to “represent” are the forces at work in D.’s home. This has taken its toll on D. When we first met him, D. was pushing away anyone who got too close. He fought and, although he is extremely bright, was failing his classes. But a year in our workshops has wrought a change in D.’s spirit. He runs to our writing group every week, ready to tell his stories. He thrills in the close relationship with our volunteers and in the recognition, finally, of his smarts. In fact, this young man was among the few students chosen for participation in Words Alive, our annual public reading and young author signing.”
What it comes down to is that you’ve got a bunch of people volunteering their time to touch the lives of children. I don’t think it really even matters so much what the exact plan and strategy is of an organization, as long as there are good people who want to help those who could use a bit of helping, then I’m all for it. Also when the sacrifices being made are as drastic as the one that Reba Elliott made, then you really know that she was born to make other people’s lives better. How many of us can imagine quitting our jobs cold turkey to create an organization from scratch, without even expecting to make any money from it? I’m happy to do what I can to help her and other people like her in the coming months, and I hope that you’ll join me.
Below are directions on how to donate/help:
“If people are interested in donating, it’s probably easiest to do so online. Donations are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas. To make a tax-deductible donation online, visit www.fracturedatlas.org/donate and choose Book Fruits as the sponsored project. To make a donation by check, make the check out to Fractured Atlas and send it to Book Fruits at P.O. Box 11477, Washington, DC 20008.
We also LOVE donations of service. One thing we have a really, really big need for right now is a new logo. We’re changing our name to better reflect the two halves of what we do. Our new name will be Lifting Voices. We’re redesigning our website, and we’ll need a new logo to complement our new name. If you know anyone who is a graphic designer, this would really help. I’ve put up an ad on Idealist and Craigslist, but I haven’t gotten any bites yet. And our new website is coming out during September! So this is kind of a small crisis.”.
I think we’ll do really well this time around, as I talked to a bunch of people who say they will give a bit. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I’d love it if you shared your donations in the comments section. I will be starting things off with a $900 donation. Thanks everyone for reading and to anyone who helps. Any amount is greatly appreciated!
Also I’m no longer going to give exact details on how much money I’m giving, so you can just use your imagination each time.