A group of philanthropic-minded students and staff hit the road this spring break with a van full of books destined for Ukrainian refugees — adding new meaning to the phrase “book drive.”
Eight students took part in the two-day trip, which delivered more than 1,000 books that were collected by the campus community over the course of the year to the International Book Project in Lexington, Kentucky. From there, they will make their way to Ukrainians displaced by the war with Russia.
“I was really happy to see that the students were inspired to do this and understood the mission of generosity,” said Annie Gordon, director of alumni engagement, who took part in the trip.
Gordon is a tri-chair of the Generosity Project, a College initiative that aims to elevate existing work related to philanthropy, volunteerism and service. She was joined on the trip by fellow tri-chair Dean of Students Brian Janssen and project member Don Miller, director of the First Year Experience.
The origins of this particular effort date back to last summer’s Bicentennial Reunion Weekend, where U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink ’91 delivered a keynote address. Those remarks inspired two alumni — Byard Clemmons ’70 and Marci Barr Abbott ’73 — to suggest an initiative that would help Ukrainians.
The result was a Generosity Project-led book drive and a partnership with the International Book Project to get them in the hands of displaced refugees. The goal was to help Ukrainians in a way that felt authentic to Kenyon and its values, Janssen said.
“Books and literature and writing are such an important part of our culture,” he said. “By doing the book drive and building into it a student service project, it felt like the intermingling of the academics along with our commitment to serving the community.”
Students who helped hand deliver the books on March 3 got to learn about the mission of the International Book project, which collects books to send to communities in need around the world, and about the inner workings of a nonprofit organization.
The experience also illustrated for students the various ways in which they can express generosity that go beyond financial support.
“You can be generous in a lot of different ways,” Janssen said. “Generosity of spirit and time are also elements of philanthropy.”
The cost of the trip was offset by the two alumni who inspired it, and Barr Abbott actually flew to Lexington from Florida to be there for the delivery. On the way back to campus, the Kenyon delegation stopped in Cincinnati, where they were hosted for dinner by two alumni, Tim Stautberg ’85 P’23 and Katherine Stautberg ’87 P’23.
“The whole two days were really filled with people committing to helping Kenyon fulfill this project,” Janssen said.