The Concept

An elementary school student rallies his classmates and organizes a book drive to establish a library for needy children.

It was a fluke, that day in 1995. Eight-year-old Brandon Keefe, home sick from school, tagged along with his mother to a board meeting for Hollygrove, a residential treatment facility for abused and neglected children in Hollywood. The discussion that afternoon centered on the agency’s need for a library, and a little boy was listening. Three months later, Robin Keefe went to pick her son up from school and found him standing at the curb with the nearly 1,000 books he and his friends had collected for Hollygrove. BookEnds was born. 

The Challenge

Moving from a home-grown family project to an established nonprofit organization that recycles books while stressing literacy and community service.

Brandon did not stop after that initial book drive, and neither did his mother. The books kept coming, new libraries were being established and soon the national media took notice. Oprah called, there was a profile in People magazine, more newspaper articles followed – and Robin suddenly found their fledgling, but burgeoning book drive effort “in need of immediate credibility.” 

How Community Partners Has Helped

Community Partners gave BookEnds an immediate added measure of credibility to join with major corporate sponsors and the infrastructure to successfully expand its book distributions into the hundreds of thousands.

Robin took full advantage of Community Partners’ many workshops and individual counsel. She learned how to structure a business plan, developed an 18-member advisory board, hired staff and much more. Her project matured to the point that it has become an independent nonprofit organization. “Community Partners’ staff and its resources have been enormously helpful,” says Robin.

She also credits her growth and success to the relationships forged with other Project Leaders. “No one else understands the passion, the hours, and the unending commitment required to succeed better than other leaders. We really learned from each other.”

SOURCE: Community Partners 2001-2002 Biennial Report

PROJECT STATUS: BookEnds was a project of Community Partners from 1998-2002. BookEnds continues to serve the children of Southern California, and has distributed more than a million books to over 300,000 children since its establishment.

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