Pull-Ups for Prisoner Literacy

Update (3/27): We have met our original goal! Thank you, thank you, thank you--we've revised the goal to encourage everyone to continue to support our mission of literacy and solidarity for prisoners.

Books to Prisoners  (Seattle), a volunteer-driven non-profit, has worked for over 40 years to connect incarcerated individuals with free reading materials.

This is an important service: research shows that access to educational services behind bars results in lower rates of recidivism and better reintegration for the 95% of individuals who will eventually return to their communities. Despite these benefits, budgets for prison libraries have been drastically cut over the past decade. The vast majority of prisoners in the United States are indigent and unable to afford to buy books for themselves. Prison policies further prevent prisoners from receiving books that have been mailed by friends and loved ones, restricting their options for receiving books.

In a system where opportunities for education and self-empowerment are difficult to obtain, Books to Prisoners has been helping over 11,000 inmates across the country each year by mailing free books upon request.

That's wonderful, you're probably saying right about now, but what's the reason for this campaign?

On March 28 and 29, Andy, the president of Books to Prisoners, will be attempting to break the world record for pull-ups completed during a 24-hour period!

We just couldn't resist the opportunity to make some really bad puns about bars and turn this into a fundraiser for Books to Prisoners. So let's 'raise the bar' for prisoner literacy! Or set the bar. Or go over the bar. Or...well, you get the idea.

Here's the deal: if you enjoy the idea of making our president work for it, donate a 'per pull-up' amount to motivate him. The current record is 4,321--an average of 3 pull-ups every minute. At the current record, pledging one cent per pull-up to break this record works out to just $43.22.

All donations will go toward supporting our core program: improving the lives of incarcerated persons across the country through free reading materials. Our organization has always relied upon the support of community members like you. Your support ensures that we can continue to mail out the 11,000+ packages that inmates request each and every year.

Your $43.22 would:

-Provide postage for 15 packages

-Purchase two dozen used books to mail

-Purchase wrapping materials for 500 packages