Books for Africa, which ships tomes from its piled-high Atlanta warehouse to libraries and schools around the continent, last month capitalized on an influx of thousands of do-gooders to the city.
Focusing on global health with speakers including Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary International’s annual convention was slated to bring more than 37,000 people to the city June 10-14. Some 2,000 members came from Japan alone.
Books for Africa’s goal was to ship 250,000 books (more than 10 40-foot containers’ worth) as a result of new ties from the conference. The organization put together a “convention special,” offering a $5,000 discount per shipping container for these guests.
Atlanta site director Brad Mattson offered a tour for more than 100 Rotarians who enjoyed catered African delicacies while African music played in the background.
Based in Minneapolis, Books for Africa has shipped more than 2.4 million books just in the last year, plus 154 computers and 62 e-readers with 467,000 digital books.
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