Every December we set up a little Christmas tree at the front of the store and hang little paper angels upon it and solicit donations from our customers. For the last several holiday seasons, the recipient of this largess has been BookPALs. BookPALs is run by members of the Screen Actors Guild, and they undertake projects to promote literacy. The local chapter does regular readings in schools and family homeless shelters in San Francisco. The books our customers purchase to donate all go to kids in these shelters. We at Green Apple give all of the money collected (not just the profits, mind you) in trade for the volunteers to pick out even more books.
Well, Green Apple customers came through again this year, with over 70 books and more than $300 in trade for the BookPALs. Customers often say that it is nice of Green Apple to do this, but seriously, it's our customers who do the heavy lifting. We just make it easy. So a big thank you to all of you book angels, and if you're interested in reading at a shelter, the contact information is on the BookPALs webpage.