BEYOND THE BURNING: A Book Drive for the UP CAL DECL

I come from a family of book lovers. I grew up being surrounded by books and I considered them as my friends ever since I learned how to read. Needless to say, the library was one of my favorite hang outs in school. It was the first thing that I usually look for every time I visit a school and where I could stay for long periods of time without getting bored. It was a place where I felt at home and at peace with myself.

One of my fondest memories on how much my family love books  was that time when my eldest brother came home from school one weekend, running with some books in his hands. The school where all four of us went was about a  kilometer away from where we used to live. He was literally throwing them at our yard so he could run and hurry back to get some more books. I was still in Grade school then but if my memory served me right, one of the school caretakers were burning some old books that were infested by termites due to non use. My brother thought that he may find some books that were worth reading so he decided to salvage some of them. Looking back, there were a couple of books that I found valuable  and one of them was the famous "Tin Tin and the Crab"  which was a story filled with wit and adventure. It was a good read and to think that it was one of the things that my brother saved from that unfortunate burning of books that happened long ago, I was grateful I was able to read it and shared that story to my kids.


When somebody posted about A Book Drive for the UP College of Arts and Literature because of its unfortunate burning on April 1st, that childhood memory was triggered, making me remember that old book that was salvaged from the fire.I immediately became interested on how I could do my share in helping out. When I have learned that decades worth of Philippine literature and history went up in flames, I realized how massive the destruction was. 

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One of the posts in their facebook page also touched a sensitive chord on how much was  destroyed and how badly they need our help. 

" Please join us in helping: Many of our friends and colleagues lost books, personal mementos, artworks, even bodies of their own work in the fire that struck the UP Faculty Center. We are collecting books for the English Department. Copies of canon works, literary classics, popular classics, books on teaching and writing creative nonfiction, fiction, literature, grammar, language, and so on are very welcome.

We're in touch with a few faculty members--who are understandably in shock and grieving right now--and we'll make sure they get your donations. PM us here.

If you're from another affected department (Speech/Theater, European Languages, Filipino, Art Studies, Social Studies, PolSci, History), please do start a collection for them as well. They will need it. Thank you "

 An infographic was also posted on how we could extend or help.

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For office supplies, they are accepting the following :

 *Bond Paper (A4), Stapler, Staple Wires, Ballpen
 *Short and long folders 
 *Short & Long envelopes
 *Paper Clips, Alligator Clips 
 *Masking Tape, Scotch Tape, Tape Dispensers,etc 


." What does not kill you make you stronger." No one may have been hurt physically with that unfateful burning of the UP College of Liberal Arts but the wounds of what has been left may take a long time to heal. May we find time to help and do our share in anyway we can. Let us help restore a stronger UP CAL DECL. 

For more updates, please visit their facebook page on the nearest drop off points for your donations. 

For cash donations, please send a copy of the bank deposit slip to bangon.cla2016@gmail.com.