Volunteer
Get Involved, Make a Real Difference in the Lives of Students
Looking for volunteer opportunities in Lake County, Illinois? Bookfriends International, NFP is thankful for its many local volunteers and organizations who lend us their support. Every volunteer and donor has helped us to grow and fulfill our mission of sending books to African schools.
As you may already know, the needs in African schools are overwhelming, and there are thousands of schools needing our help. Bookfriends has made a HUGE difference in the lives of African youth. BUT there are so many more that can benefit in the same way as we move forward to prepare and send more books. This progress happens because of our dedicated volunteers working with the book donations and being supported through the generous monetary gifts which make it possible to continue shipping books by the container load.
Please volunteer your time, your ideas, your energy and your dollars so our mission can continue its progress.
Are you retired, a part-time worker, a stay-at-home mom or dad? Perhaps you have been out of the workforce and you are looking for an activity to bolster your resume. Perhaps you and your teen-aged child want to do some bonding over a socially-important issue.
Please consider donating your time and talents today to help make a significant difference in the education of secondary school aged students in third world countries. We need help in a variety of areas including:
- Book processing
- Fundraising
- Volunteer coordination
- Training
- Marketing and public relations
- Administrative duties
Volunteer Groups
Bookfriends is thankful for the support we have received from organizations, including religious outreach groups, kids clubs and school groups to help students to complete their needed community service hours.
Volunteer activities include:
- Picking up books from donors and delivering to the Bookfriends warehouse.
- Shelving incoming book donations.
- Sorting books for appropriateness.
- Applying card-pockets to library books.
- Pulling and matching textbooks per school lists.
- Packing book boxes for specific schools.
- Loading and unloading books for shipment.
Please contact us to schedule a time to organize rewarding group volunteer activities for your organization.

Cheryl, Nancy and Carla volunteer weekly to prepare books for shipment to African schools.

Students from Quest Academy volunteer their time at the Bookfriends Warehouse. They are shown here with Bookfriends founder Paulie Kutschat and Warehouse Manager Lori Micheletti.
This lift helps our volunteers get books safely from our shelves.