Each year at graduation, the Eta Gamma Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at Coffeyville Community College participates in one of their international Society’s initiatives, Project Graduation.  The tradition began with Bergen Community College in New Jersey with “Feed A Body, Feed A Mind” where non-perishable food items and children’s books were collected for those in need.  In 2011, the Eta Gamma Chapter chose to support Peace Corps volunteer and southeastern Kansas native Kyle Kastler with Project Graduation School Supplies.  The effort resulted in four large boxes of school supplies being sent to students in the Kyrgyz Republic of Central Asia.

This year, Eta Gamma Chapter has selected a special Project Graduation activity to coordinate with their Honors Study Topic, “The Culture of Competition, Making the Grade:  Competition and Education.”  The Coffeyville chapter is partnering with the African Library Project to establish a library in Africa for primary level children pre-school to fourth grade.  The chapter’s goal is 1,000 books, the number required to establish the library.  After the books have been collected, they will be sent from the New Orleans shipping site to the designated location in Africa. The chapter would appreciate receiving the following types of books for the project:  baby board books, children’s picture books, big books, children’s fiction and non-fiction, early readers, teacher’s resource books for school libraries, children’s dictionaries/picture dictionaries, encyclopedias less than 15 years old, children’s encyclopedias/picture encyclopedias, children’s thesauruses, paperback textbooks in math, English, geography, health and science at appropriate levels (kindergarten to 6th grade), books with universal themes such as friendship and animals, children’s health books, and accurate up-to-date atlases.

Books that are inappropriate for the project are: books filled with small print and no pictures, books with slang which might be difficult for English learners to follow, books for very young children that may have references to appliances and electronic gadgets, adult paperback romance novels, books about United States history or government, books about American religious holidays or other American celebrations such as 4th of July and Halloween, books that promote a particular religion and magazines except for children’s educational and National Geographic less than five years old.

If you have books to donate to Project African Library, please call the Phi Theta Kappa office at Coffeyville Community College at 251-7700 x. 2076.  The books can also be brought to the Chapter’s Recognition Celebration, May 6, at 2:00 p.m. in the Spence/RoundsTheatre or to the College Graduation itself on Saturday, May 12, at 10:00 a.m. where there will be a special table in the foyer of Nellis Hall where the books can be left.