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Polyverse Publishing

Bookchurch was active in Carpinteria, CA from 2023-2025.

Thank you to all our donors, sponsors, writers, and readers. While we continue to gather and donate books, we have paused our operations as a federal non-profit.

Bookchurch.org was a non-religious, non-profit created to prevent book-donation waste by sorting and donating titles to match specific needs.

We provided free books and reading materials to anyone who wants to read, operating from its home base in Carpinteria, CA from 2023-2025.

We are proud to have reduced book waste by curating specific book donations based on the requested subject and genre needed by individuals, organizations, non-profits, and companies.

Two girls are holding red pencils in their mouths.

Interview with Bookchurch.org Founder - Louis Force Torres

Curated Donations:

  • Continuing Little Library Donations: As part of our ongoing community volunteerism, we continue to service little libraries to fill with assorted titles. We also organize and clean them, removing and recycling outdated magazines, marketing fliers, etc. 
  • Santa Barbara Education Foundation: Through a partnership with the SB Education Foundation, Bookchurch provided 6000 books to ten different Santa Barbara Schools in 2024!
  • The Lynda Fairly Arts Center: 200+ fine art books to the Art Library, including books on individual artists, art styles, and museums, ranging from painting to sculpture.
  • Apples-to-Zucchini Cooking School: Cooking and recipe books of all varieties, allowing students to view and prepare classical and modern recipes. New, classical, and vintage cookbooks were donated.
  • Murphy’s Vinyl Shack: Assorted books and biographies themed around music and musicians.
  • Rockshop Academy: Rock, drum, guitar, and modern music books.
  • Classical Piano Lessons: Piano-specific material ranging from several hundred years old, ranging from classical to modern.
  • The Alcazar Theatre: Plays and Scripts, including the proposed installation of a shelf area for use by the acting troupes.
  • Dream World Collectibles: Comics and Graphic Novels for free Comic Book Day!
  • Wilderness Youth Foundation: Trail guides and nature-themed children’s books.
  • The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology: (Ventura County) Bird guides and historical bird studies ranging over the past 100-years for internal education and research purposes.
  • The Junior League of Santa Barbara: Bookshelves, books, furniture, art & decorations sponsoring their private library. 

 

Multiple Subjects and Genres:

  • Gran Vida Retirement and Memory Care: Mixed books for tenants, as well as in-person workshops on book-binding, cover design, and an interactive Q&A. Continuing donations on requested genres and titles for specific residents.
  • Presidio Springs Retirement Community: Donations to fill the library, coupled with an ongoing program to obtain Spanish materials for Spanish speakers.
  • Planned Parenthood: We donate boxes to this organization for their annual book sale. We are also seeking a way to reduce the after-sale waste by organizing a truck pickup when the sale ends.
  • Friends of the Carpinteria Library: We offer to bring and fill shelves for any particular genre they request or need. We also offer to assist with loading and unloading books on a regular basis.
  • Girl’s Inc. Carpinteria: Books for all ages, including biographies of potential strong female role models, as well as entertainment and education-based books of multiple genres.
  • Empowering Latino Futures (ELF): Over 1000 x bilingual and educational books to provide for multi-language education.

Books to Prisoners:

  • Los Angeles County, CA: Education-Based Incarceration Bureau 
  • San Bernadino County, CA: FCI-1 Education Department
  • Pickaway County, OH: Jail System
  • Seattle, WA: Books-to-Prisoners Program through Left Bank Books
  • Vermillion County Jail, IN: Large donation to stock new library

Damaged Books:

    • Coastland Carpinteria: Vintage paper and pages, magazines, classic book covers for their art and paper mache programs. 
    • Art From Scrap: Vintage books, maps, magazines, and posters for their art classes and learning programs.
    • Private Artists: From scrapbooking to vision boards, tell us what you need!!

Little Libraries:

    • Little Libraries: We love community libraries! If you wish to add books to one, reach out to Polyverse Publishing at: louis@polyversepublishing.com