Magazine Literacy Bee

So we've just started wrapping up our attempt to plan a magazine drive in San Francisco. Sadly, our efforts did not go as smoothly as expected, but we don't plan on our work being in vain. That being said, here's an account of how our afternoon went!

- each of us shared our first/favorite memory of reading. This gave us a sense of what literacy meant to us.

- we had posters labeled: "Who?" "Where?" "How?" and "What?". The "Who" covered who would benefit and/or is in need of magazines. This group scoped out and contacted groups that would potentially receive donated magazines. The "Where" covered where we could place collection bins. This group scoped out and contacted businesses/locations that would potentially let us set up collection bins. The "How" covered what steps needed to be taken to actually implement our project. The "What" covered what would be written in our blog post. We did the "How" and "What" together as a whole.

- we were surprised to find that many agencies (boys & girls clubs, ymcas, etc.) did not want magazine donations. Some said it was because they just usually didn't receive them, and others were "going green" and didn't want to store the magazines.

- when trying to find places that would donate the magazines and/or host collection bins, we were at first disheartened to get rejected by a bunch of bigger businesses who could not host bins due to different "legal reasons". Other businesses did not have the necessary authority (owner, manager, etc.) on hand to give us an answer. Fortunately, when we started calling salons and dentist/doctor offices, they seemed more than happy to have us pick up old magazines. We all agreed that people planning on making the drive a reality should plan on contacting businesses like these first.

Though short of a victory, we hope that our notes will help those interested to know what does and doesn't work!

*******we will send pictures of our day later tonight!*******