At a national level, Alpha Phi Omega has designated every first week of November as National Service Week, inspiring service programs and uniting all Alpha Phi Omega chapters under one theme. The 2015 National Service Week program of emphasis was “Literacy for All”. In accordance, the Ohio Northern University chapter hosted a successful three- day book drive from November 3-5 held in McIntosh Center, collecting an estimated 300 books to be donated to Lima Public Library.
“I started putting the drive together as a way for our chapter to participate in Alpha Phi Omega’s National Service Week, whose theme was adult literacy,” stated Lily Rodeheffer of the Ohio Northern chapter, who took the responsibility of directing and organizing the book drive. “Adult literacy is a rising issue and has a lot of implications for people everywhere, so it became important to me to raise awareness.”
Although ONU’s Heterick Memorial Library could not provide books, another local donor became a huge help to APO’s cause. Ada Public Library alone donated over 200 books to Alpha Phi Omega’s book drive.
If they had not donated, these books would’ve simply been recycled. Representatives of Alpha Phi Omega collected the books personally and temporarily stored them in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house, which would later be shipped off to Lima.
Donations comprised of old textbooks students were not going to use, as well as young adult literature.