A brief history of BTP Olympia:
a draft of our story…
if you’ve volunteered with BTP before and you’d like to add to or help edit this btp history, let us know!
btpoly[at]resist.ca
Books To Prisoners Olympia was born
It all started in 1996 when Long Hair David (pictured below) decided to start up a prison book project near to home. He had visited the Seattle BTP project, liked the work that volunteers had been up to there since the early 1970s, and wanted to offset their workload by starting a satellite organization in Olympia. Since that time, BTP Olympia has had 3 homes. We first resided in downtown Olympia at the corner of 4th and Columbia behind Bulldog News and Olympia World News. (Currently the building is inhabited by Bamboo, a restaurant.) Long Hair David remained a central part of the project for the first four years of BTP Olympia’s life, along with two other strong organizers, Red and Chris Carson.
In 2001, financial troubles lead Olympia World News to raise BTP’s rent to a sum too large for our wee funds to manage. So, after a trying search, many loving volunteer arms moved the project’s library and belongings to a temporary home in the basement of a church that welcomed us. For a year and a half thereafter, volunteers hunted for an inexpensive but large-enough organizing and library space to move into. During this time the organization lost its primary coordinator, the steadfast and energetic Chris Carson, as she changed focus to other important projects.
The new (and very small) volunteer base struggled to re-enliven BTP after it had been inoperable for many months. The work they did together was done at a folding table amidst tall piles of about 200 boxes of books. Two new but primary organizers, Laurel and Johnny, tried to gather an understanding of how BTP Olympia actually did the work of sending books to prisoners. They had many questions. Which forms were used for which tasks? How were we to keep on top of prison restrictions? What was BTP’s relationship with the local post office like? How do volunteer-based organizations attract volunteers? How were we to encourage donations of good books instead of lousy ones? What is a good book, anyhow? Most importantly, how are we to get along with one another while undertaking such an enormous task?! Johnny and Laurel went to a National Prison Book Project Conference in 2003, where they learned from and shared with other groups doing similar work in other cities. There they met a Books Through Bars New York volunteer, Max, who would later become a primary organizer of BTP Olympia when she moved to town in 2004. After the conference and back in Olympia, the church ownership changed and our temporary home was soon to be dissolved. BTP was touch-and-go while a good but small handful of new blood endured these trying months.
In 2002, Laurel and Malinda Lamm met one another in a workshop. They became acquainted over time, Laurel told Malinda about BTP’s hunt for a home, and early in 2003 Malinda proposed that BTP move into her basement for a modest $50/month in rent. Matthew M set to work splitting Malinda’s basement into two parts by constructing a wall, and various other volunteers primed the sidewalls, drywalled the ceiling and painted the floors. Tibor Brewer, a local contractor, got on board to work with volunteers to build some new shelves designed specifically with the project’s needs in mind. Four or five volunteers took on the mighty project of moving gobs and gobs of books and organizational materials across town to the corner of Sixth and Thomas. Thanks to a communicative relationship with Malinda, BTP has kept our warm and colorful home on the west side for nearly five years since!
From this home base we have come to maturity. We’ve developed systems for everything from accounting to how best to categorize books on our shelves. Core volunteers take shifts as “keyholders” each week where they open and close the space for volunteers, and take on various extra organizing responsibilities. Some of these keyholding project organizers have been Jacob, Max, Alex Becker, JR, Laurel, and Emily. Many other volunteers have filled and wrapped requests, sought out & brought in new donations, worked to fundraise, sensibly organized the bookshelves, built new bookshelves, started the dumpster values $1 bin (an ongoing fundraiser), helped to build this website, and taken on numerous other tasks related to getting quality reading material out to prisoners requesting it.
After 12 years, Books to Prisoners Olympia still maintains a relationship with Books to Prisoners Seattle. Together with satellite organizations in Bellingham and Portland, we’ve managed in 2007 to “catch up” on letters! (Meaning, we are able to set to work filling a request when it arrives instead of adding it to the bottom of a stack. when an inmate requests books in January, they will likely get a package in January!) This is an accomplishment most prison book projects dream of and work years to attain.
Today, the history rolls on…
Check out what’s going on now!