Andy Chan shelves books in Books To Prisoners' new headquarters in the University Christian Church. The sunshine on his skin feels refreshing after the years he has spent volunteering for the organization in windowless basements and backrooms. Not so lucky are those that he serves, those for whom a snatch of sun or rain may be a rare luxury. But Andy is making sure that America's inmates can at least catch some warmth and life through the pages of the thousands of books Books to Prisoners dispatches each year.
Chan has volunteered with the group since he emigrated to Seattle in '94. He helps in decision-making, fielding requests, and fundraising for the nonprofit, which operates on a teensy budget of $1,200 a year, most of which goes to postage and packaging.
Chan packs books every Monday and sends them off to people most American never see and seldom think about. "Prisoners are not cuddly," he tells me. "They may have done something you think is morally or ethically abhorrent, but that doesn't mean they're not people worthy of humanity."