Our Wonderful Warehouse

Kristina Cruise's Garage

Everyone loves to time travel, right? Follow me as we cast our minds back to an earlier time in the history of Promising Pages. Way, way, way back to…autumn of 2011. Okay, so maybe not so long ago, but never the less, it was a time of conflict for Promising Pages that would soon be fixed by an unexpected, albeit much appreciated, solution.

Promising Pages really began in April of 2011, and by the formerly mentioned autumn, we had acquired a fairly decent sized library of both new and gently used children’s books thanks to the "Books and Basics Drive" with Central and some permanent drop off locations that came out of that drive such as The Last Word. So getting a fairly steady supply of books certainly wasn’t the problem. No, it was how exactly to store them, and turn them into presents. Kristina Cruise, founder and Director of Promising Pages, was using the space available to her, which was in her garage. However, it soon became packed to the brim with Curious George, Dr. Seuss, and tales of Disney princesses. Kristina Cruise recalls, “We were getting in all these books, which was great, but it was nearly impossible to sort them or even get to them. I couldn't even walk around in there anymore, it was a mess. We needed a solution, we needed some serious storage space.”

CBI Truck

The something bigger we were looking for came from just three tiny letters: CBI, otherwise known as Charlotte Business Interiors. As mentioned in an earlier blog, Promising Pages attended the Charlotte Chamber Annual Retreat in Wild Dunes, South Carolina last October. It was here that Promising Pages announced its BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) to collect 1 million children’s books by the end of 2012. Promising Pages made a lot of connections at the retreat including Charlotte Business Interiors, who contacted Kristina in December after hearing she needed storage space. Kristina admits, “When I heard they were offering space, I thought we might get a few shelves in a storage closet.” She was sure in for a big surprise because David Longo of CBI provided Promising Pages with an entire section of a warehouse! “It’s so awesome,” Cruise praises. “It will fit as many books as six two-car-garages and has 30 foot ceilings! We could not be more thankful for this incredible donation." Longo told Cruise their business has just been so blessed and they wanted to help pay it forward by doing something really great for the community. For more about CBI, a Knoll dealers, click here.

CBI Check to Promising Pages!

In order to transfer all of our books, CBI sent their own truck to pick them all up. To top it all off, CBI also donated a check for 1 thousand dollars to Promising Pages! Both the money and the space have been a huge help as we continue with our goal of collecting 1 million books.

The warehouse is a very active location lately as volunteers come to donate, organize, clean, and wrap books. Recently, Elevation Church dedicated 150+ hours of volunteering as part of Love Week in the warehouse. Children cleaned, and the adults sorted and wrapped the books. If you or your organization or someone you know would like to help out Promising Pages at our warehouse, please contact us at info@promisingpages.com.

 

Our Wonderful Warehouse

--Faith Lippard, Promising Pages Blogger