PTO Hosts Longest Book Swap in YISStory

Every year, the YISS PTO organizes a Book Swap to help find new homes for gently-used books and provide reading material for book lovers in our school community. The YISS PTO has a tradition of inviting students, parents, and staff to drop off their books in January and early February and then giving out vouchers for participants to come and choose “new” books from what is collected. 

Last winter, 1,649 books were dropped off in the blue Book Swap bins in the main lobby from January 14 to February 1. Originally scheduled for February 25-26, 2020, the Book Swap had to be postponed due to the sudden closure of schools in Korea as a result of the rising number of cases of COVID-19 across the nation. At the time, no one knew how long COVID conditions would keep the campus closed or when events would be able to resume. 

The massive collection of books spanning all ages and genres sat in a room sorted and ready to be swapped from February to June. Unfortunately, conditions didn’t allow for such an event during the Spring 2020, and participants were informed that the event would be rescheduled for Fall 2020.

The long-awaited Book Swap finally took place from September 21 to 23. The Book Swap Chair made beautiful decorations in order to make this year's swap even more festive for everyone. Due to hybrid learning, the Book Swap spanned three days to make sure all participants had a chance to visit. 

After the swap ended, teachers were invited to choose from the remaining books for their classroom libraries. The books that were not taken were donated to the NGO Aklatan sa Kostal (Library in the Coasts), which promotes literacy by building small libraries in remote areas in the Philippines.

Many thanks to Book Swap Chair Sarah Naidoo for her many hours collecting and sorting the books, as well as for the beautiful decorations. Special thanks to Ting Ting Chen and Christine Lee for assisting students as they selected their books during the three-day event. 

From start to finish, Book Swap 2020 spanned a total of eight months! COVID caused the timeline to be stretched much longer than usual; but nevertheless, the Book Swap was a valuable event that supported our school community’s love of books.