ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½

St. Paul book donations to ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ top 25 millio

In 1988, Tom Warth set out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but stumbled upon a much loftier goal -- ending what he calls ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½'s "book famine."

Warth, of Marine on St. Croix, had just sold his book business and was traveling the world. He ended up at a public library in Uganda, where he saw a librarian, children and virtually no books.

Back in Minnesota, he collected surplus textbooks and sent them to that library in Uganda.

It was the start of ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul that has shipped millions of books to 46 ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n countries.

The official number of donated books topped 25 million recently. So on Thursday, ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ celebrated that milestone and International Literacy Day by calling for volunteers to sort and pack books at its St. Paul warehouse. The festivities continue next weekend with a South ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n-style barbecue at the warehouse, open to the public.