Book Access Turns Up the Volumes

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Rebecca Constantino credits her obsession with books to growing up without a TV. “We played outside until dark and then read,” recalls the Los Angeles woman, now 45.

Years later, while at a school library in Brentwood, she noticed the librarian was throwing out 700 books. A light lit up and Book Access was born. Those discarded books, as well as about 1.5 million that followed, were donated to inner-city schools in Compton, Watts and just about anywhere else with a need.

In the early days, donated books were stored anywhere she could stack them and distributed from her car. “I can fit 4,200 books into my Volkswagen Passat,” Constantino said with the certainty of someone who’s tried. “They were everywhere; in my house, the carport, my friends’ garages. It was a nightmare.”

Today things are somewhat different for the non-profit’s three paid employees and 50 weekly volunteers who give away 200,000 books annually. The organization keeps the goods in a small warehouse and distributes them from a donated 1972 Toyota.

“It holds the same number of books as my Passat,” asserts Constantino. “I know how to cram them in.”

Her only complaint: She’s so busy she has no time to read.


Painting the Town

When Lotay Yang and Paige Craig attended a Los Angeles Kings hockey game recently, they found they kept discussing their hobby.

“We were both talking about how much we love paintball,” said Yang. “And then it became: ‘Hey, why don’t we start a paintball group for the tech community?'”

As a result, the two Yang, 37, runs Black Card Circle, an exclusive online networking site, and Craig, 34, owns communications consulting company Lincoln Group are now organizing a charity paintball tournament for the local tech community at Castaic Lake on Feb. 8.

The two launched a thread on Twitter.com to gauge interest. It quickly took off. Among those who answered the call are local tech gurus Jason Calacanis and Ian Swanson, and tech people from as far away as Denver, Houston and New York.

If you can’t make it to the Santa Clarita Valley lake, don’t worry: Yang and Craig said they’re trying to find a way for participants to wear web cameras so the action can be streamed live online. “We should be able to do it. After all, we are a bunch of tech geeks,” Yang said.


Free Music, No Takers?

DJ Crash, a professional disc jockey in Hollywood, has decided to donate his song-serving talents to charity during 2009. Since December he has been offering to provide a few hours of free entertainment for good causes.

But so far, no takers.

“I’ve had only two people contact me, and I’ve reached out to about 5,000 individuals and PR firms,” Crash, 38, said. “Is that incredible? Nobody wants to take free entertainment.”

Crash, who said that’s his legal name, is unsure why there has been scant interest, although the number of parties and celebrations generally is down. He will continue to extend his offer for all of 2009, although his pro bono gigs are limited to Southern California.

He said he always had an interest in helping others, but the downturn in the economy brought those feelings to the surface.

“My goal is to entertain and bring a little bit of happiness, along with some economic relief, to families in need and charities.”


Staff reporters David Haldane, Charles Proctor and Joel Russell contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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