Thanks to all of you who donated to the GNCA 2022 Asian-Themed Book Drive for Nashville School Libraries! We started with an initial goal of raising $11,000, but thanks to a broad and generous community response and a late surge in donations, we increased our goal to $15,000 and met that as well! In addition to the $15,081 raised through our GoFundMe page, we also received over $3,000 in direct donations, along with dozens of Asian-themed books. We formally presented the checks to MNPS and WCS on May 22 at the API Heritage Month Arts Festival; both school systems are working to choose and purchase the books over the summer break.

In addition to meeting our fundraising goals, we also were able to bring more attention to our efforts to help Nashville’s students learn more about the history, customs, achievements, and cultural contributions of Asian Americans. Below is a collection of media coverage so far:

• March 10: Book-banning bills have potential to reshape the future of school libraries in Tennessee | WPLN News
• April 19: Book Drive Aims to Increase AAPI Representation in School Libraries | City Limits | nashvillescene.com
• May 15: GoFundMe “Heroes” Feature
• May 20: $14K raised in Asian heritage book donation drive (newschannel5.com)
• May 22: API Middle Tennessee hosts API Heritage Month Arts Festival (newschannel5.com)
• May 31: Local book drive will deliver hundreds of Asian-themed novels to Nashville schools | WPLN News
• June 4: Nashville Organization Donates to WCS Libraries – Williamson Source

Thanks once again to all of those who participated, as well as our partners, API Middle Tennessee and Nashville Chinese School. As we have said from the beginning, we envision this as an ongoing project and hope to run future fundraisers for a wider range of books and covering more school libraries in the years ahead.