In the course of a busy Week 8, the School of Science staff and students found time to hold a 3-day book collection drive on campus from the 26th-28th of April 2017. This event was organized in conjunction with Starbucks’ Global Month of Service (GMoS) Community Library Campaign, where books will be donated to effect change in certain communities in Sarawak, Pahang, and Kuala Selangor.
Ms Lee Yong Soon, the Course Executive from the Course Management Office for the School of Science, initiated the drive upon learning about the GMoS 2017 on Starbucks Malaysia’s Facebook page. As the Starbucks event would have concluded on the 10th of April, she contacted Starbucks’ staff in order to extend the deadline until the end of the month. After getting the green light from Starbucks themselves, Ms Lee and the School of Science started the on-campus book drive for Monashians to donate used books, albeit ones in good condition, for the cause. These books included fiction and non-fiction categories, and books for kids and teens as well.
According to Ms Lee, the event was an effort for the School of Science to “support, promote and play our part to give back to the community”. Thus, several boxes were set up near the library entrance from 10 am to 3 pm on each of the three days for Monash students to drop off their used books. After the book collection drive was completed, the boxes of books generously donated by Monashians were handed over to Starbucks staff in Sunway Pyramid; these would then be given to the community in Kampung Parit Serong, Kuala Selangor.
When contacted, Ms Lee was happy to share some thoughts on the event:
1) What is your opinion in terms of organizing such an event in Monash?
The Course Management Office of School of Science always aims to improve student experiences outside of the classroom-to learn how to give back to the community via community event engagement. We came to know that Starbucks Malaysia organized the Community Library Campaign from 1-10 April 2017. I contacted Starbucks and they were willing to extend the campaign until 30th April. That was when I started to recruit student helpers for 3-day booth management and to be ambassadors to spread this campaign news among the Monash community. I was expecting 10-15 students to sign up but we had 21 student helpers at the end!
2) Was it a success in your opinion? Is there anything you would have done differently?
Despite the short period of preparation time, this event was definitely a success with a collection of 372 books in total! Thanks for the support from the Monash community and science student helpers. The books were delivered to Starbucks Pyramid and will be channelled to Kampung Parit Serong, Kuala Selangor.
Article by Natasha Fernandez
Photos by Event Organizers
musamonga.com 