We love reading, as evidenced by our Far Reads Book Club and all the books we found as we were packing up to move out of our long-time Main Street Cedar Falls office (read my year-end update for more on that).
We had duplicate copies of many books—thanks to the book club model—and plenty more single copies we were done with. Of course, the last thing we wanted was for the books to end up in the landfill, so we went in search of a place or organization that would put the books to good use. Fortunately, we found a great way to give these books a new life while also helping young learners boost their business knowledge.
Expo Alternative Learning Center in Waterloo, Iowa, now has dozens of business books to serve as the foundation for their leadership library.
“The impact of the Leadership Library on our students is honestly limitless,” said Henry Shepherd, Assistant Principal at Expo Alternative Learning Center. “The Leadership Library will become an addition to our current library, which is easily accessible to our staff and students. The addition will most definitely help our Lighthouse students hone their leadership skills as both students and future community leaders. Our teachers will utilize this amazing cornucopia of leadership resources to grow professionally and enhance their daily interactions with our students.”
We got a lot out of these books, both as a team and as individuals, and I can’t think of a better place for them to go. The students at Expo now have access to some of the best business books out there from which to learn and grow.
Among the books donated were those by authors such as:
- Seth Godin
- Jeff Sutherland
- Patrick Lencioni
- Kim Scott
- Shawn Achor
- Jim Collins
- Simon Sinek
- Brené Brown
- And many more
Henry Shepherd, Assistant Principal at Expo Alternative Learning Center (left), and Kate Washut, CEO of Far Reach, with some of the donated books.
We plan to continue adding to Expo’s leadership library each year and hope the students benefit from the many lessons shared in their pages.