World Book Night announced preliminary statistics on where WBN book givers went on April 23, reporting a third each in school, health and service, and general ‘around town’ categories.
WBN's Carl Lennertz reported: “This year saw a significant rise in activity by community college students, as well as increased outreach by givers to GED and ESL classes. In the health and service area, over a thousand givers went to food pantries and family shelters, and a hundred went to firehouses, partly due to Mike Perry’s book on the list. We also doubled the prison outreach, thanks largely to the Prison Book Program in Quincy, MA. The catch-all ‘around town’ group included over 500 mass transit giveaways, including 15 ferries, as well as 12 bowling alleys, 11 hair salons, 10 boardwalks, 9 gas stations, 8 record stores, 7 ice cream stands, 6 truck stops, 5 airports, 4 hotel front desks, 3 comedy clubs, 2 hardware stores, and 1 pool hall.”
Additionally, Lennertz said: “This year, as part of a new initiative, 2,000 givers participated as part of 150 groups, from the Migrant Farmworker Project in Kansas to the City of West Hollywood’s book brigade.”
A full list will be posted online in a week with more statistics.
