A partnership between Deseret Book and the LDS Church's Humanitarian Services will send its first shipment of 6,500 children's books to Ghana and Fiji this week, where they will be distributed by local LDS leaders and missionaries to teachers, and then on to children in need.

The shipment, valued at $60,000 retail, was made possible through a program called Chapters of Hope, which Deseret Book CEO Sheri Dew announced less than a year ago to gather funding for books destined for the hands of children in impoverished areas of the world.

In the past few months, the book chain has advertised its commitment to providing books for needy children abroad and asks customers at the cash register if they want to donate. To date, about $110,000 has been raised, she said, some of it by Deseret Book authors who direct a portion of their royalties to the effort. More than 15,000 books have been purchased from a variety of national publishers, Dew said, at a deeply discounted rate of about $1 to $1.65 each.

She told reporters at a press conference Wednesday at the LDS Bishop's Storehouse that the idea for the joint venture came as a result of a trip she took to Ghana in 1999, when she was serving as a counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On the plane home from visiting with women and children there, and seeing only two books on an otherwise empty school bookshelf, she started thinking about the size of her personal library, she said.

The desire to see other books in the hands of those children grew with the length of her flight home, Dew said. "It's one of those moments that sticks with you forever. I thought about how many different sets of scriptures I own . . . and how many thousands of books I have at home." Then the realization hit: "I work for a retail book chain. There ought to be something we can do."

While pondering how to raise money, she was shopping at a national clothing retailer and was asked at the cash register if she would like to donate $1 to plant a tree. The query answered her own fund-raising question. Since then, customers routinely add a dollar or five when checking out, she said, adding that children in a small Utah town got wind of the project and saved their pennies. They collected $127 for the effort.

Discussions within Deseret Book about how to facilitate book distribution for needy children actually took place over several years, she said, based in part on an existing program the book chain began 12 years ago to provide books for elementary school libraries in Utah. That $10 million effort will continue, she said, spurred by the company's ability to buy in bulk at a huge discount.

Chapters of Hope expands that program, as church leaders in various areas of the world have been provided with a list of books available and are encouraged to determine what books are needed and in what quantities by consulting with local education officials.

Patrick Reese, manager for planning and administration for LDS Humanitarian Services, said the book shipments to Ghana and Fiji this week are going out on containers with other humanitarian and relief supplies already destined for those countries. Funding for the shipping and distribution of books and other supplies comes from the church's Humanitarian Aid Fund, he said.

To donate online, go to www.deseretbook.com/chaptersofhope or call 1-800-453-4532.

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com