Cause for Applause

In 1998, some 30 years after her mother served as a Peace Corp volunteer in Malawi, Katie Catapano '99 launched Books to Africa, which organizes the donation of texts and maps from American elementary, middle and high schools to schools in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. Started with a $10,000 Lombard Fellowship through Dartmouth's Dickey Foundation, this past year Books to Africa coordinated the donation of 4,500 books from schoolchildren in New York, New Hampshire and Colorado. "In Africa I had a truck I drove around that would transport a thousand books at a time," says Catapano. "People would stare at me at the gas station." Catapano has since returned to Hanover to complete a master's degree in earth sciences, but several undergrads are running with the idea—literally. AmiLyn Taplin '03 helped organize a fund-raising 5K run in Hanover this fall that brought in 130 runners and $800 toward postage on future shipments. As an undergraduate advisor she also rallied her dormmates to raid their rooms for donations. "This seemed like a really good program and something that wasn't so hard," says Taplin. "Everyone has books lying around, and they're so fundamental to a person's education."