Behind the Scenes: The Bookworm Box

I love volunteering places.  Whether it be at the school or a pediatric oncology camp or swim team, I love the feeling of making a difference. It's been sort of a bucket list item to attend a packing party at The Bookworm Box.  So imagine my delight when I got to attend one this past weekend.

If you've never heard of The Bookworm Box, here's a quick overview on what it is and how it works:

Colleen Hoover, who loves donating to charity, wanted to find a way to use books to accomplish that goal.  So she and her crew created The Bookworm Box.  

Every month, people order a box that is guaranteed to have two signed paperback books in them.  You never know what you're going to get, which is part of the fun.  The box may have signed copies of 50 Shades of Gray by EL James.  Or it might have books by authors you've never heard of.

The box also has various swag items inside.  Some of them have a third book.  Some have calendars.  Some have pens.  It varies from month to month.  

As if this isn't enough, they've expanded over the last year and now have a store front right in downtown Sulphur Springs, Texas.  (It's down the street from what is now my favorite candy store ever.  That's incentive enough to visit on a regular basis.)

While The Bookworm Box started as being completely volunteer run, in less than a year's time, they've had to hire just a few employees.  Because it's considered a non-profit organization, they have had to hire things like a director and a finance person.  But when it comes to the store front and the labor that goes with packing parties, there are zero paid employees.  It's run by Colleen, her sister Lin Reynolds (who puts in a massive amount of work), her mother Vannoy Fite (who also puts in a massive amount of work) and her husband Heath (ok, ok.  They ALL put in a massive amount of work.)  The boxes are all stuffed by volunteers.

While the books for the boxes are purchased at cost, almost every single book in the store front is donated by the author.  And there are thousands of them.

Here's the best part of it....all the proceeds from the sales of the boxes go to various charities.  They've donated to everything from cancer wards to veterans programs.  There's not a lot this organization hasn't donated to.  By their first anniversary, they anticipate donating almost $300,000.  Yes, you read that right....in one year they will have raised well over a quarter of a million dollars.  

That's a hell of a lot of books.  And a hell of a lot of boxes.

How many boxes you ask?

At least that many every month.

That's just the boxes that were packed this weekend to be shipped around the US.  It doesn't include the international orders.  Crazy, right?

It was so fun being a part of the assembly line this past weekend.  It was amazing seeing multiple authors, bloggers, readers and regular community members coming together to laugh and have a good time, knowing their hard work is for a good cause.

I ended up labeling the boxes, but I also got to sneak in a few pictures. (Rest assured, if you ordered a box, your surprise will not be spoiled by my pics)

It starts:

right there on the right-hand side.  Multiple folding tables are put together, creating a work space that is easily a few hundred feet long and runs from the front of the building, through a small work area, through a storage area where the shelves are full of books, and into the very back room.  It's quite the assembly line!

Once the volunteer actually put the boxes together, they slide the assembled boxes down to be stuffed with these:

The box then it makes its way around the table to be stuffed with all kinds of swag and maybe even a note signed by Colleen Hoover herself. See all that swag on the left hand side?

The box is then closed and ends up here, in the back of the store front:

The box is taped shut and passed down to be labelled.  All the labels are printed in advance.  And there are stacks of them.  Ever seen 2000+ UPS labels before?  Yeah.  Neither had I.  (By the way, that's me on the left.  The crazy one carrying a baby while she works!)

After they are labelled they are stacked against the walls in the back where they wait until the following day when they are picked up and shipped out.  

You should hear the excitement when the final label is put on the final box!  See how happy we are?

Depending on how many boxes are sold and how many volunteers show up for packing parties, it can take anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to get everything done.  But its done with a lot of laughter and fun conversation.  Plus, there's the added benefit of randomly running into some of your favorite authors.  (I got to work right alongside Kim Holden and Susan Stoker.  We had a blast!)

If you're interested in ordering one of these fantastic boxes, just follow the link by clicking here.  

The entire family does an amazing job for a great cause.  And I couldn't be more proud to have been just a small part of it!