Project Cicero Bay Area is a volunteer-run, annual children’s book drive designed to create and supplement classroom libraries in under-resourced Bay Area public schools.
Project Cicero Bay Area completed its inaugural year in 2015. Through the help of families at participating donor schools and student volunteers in the past nine years' book drives, we have collected over 350,000 gently used pleasure reading books and distributed them to over 1,500 teachers and other educators in the Bay Area’s most under-served public schools. Through the book drive, more than 50,000 students have gained access to new reading material.
In 2018 and 2019 we made a special focus on getting books to schools, libraries and other educational institutions that were adversely affected by the fires in Northern California.
Because of the pandemic, in 2021 and 2022 we delivered thousands of books directly to schools in need.
Project Cicero Bay Area will run its next book drive and free book fair for teachers and other literacy educators in March 2025. Teachers and other educators can now sign up to participate starting in January 2025.
Thank you to the many schools and their families who have participated as donors these past 10 years. And, thank you to the many volunteers—students, parents, teachers, and other generous souls -- who assisted us in all aspects of collecting and distributing the books. We hope you can donate and participate in 2025's effort.
Project Cicero Bay Area is named in honor of the Roman writer, statesman, orator and philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero, who created extensive libraries in the first century B.C. He shared his love of literature and learning, just as Project Cicero Bay Area seeks to do.
Project Cicero Bay Area is fiscally sponsored by Social Good Fund, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. The name Project Cicero is licensed from the New York Society Library which operates Project Cicero New York City, but is otherwise unrelated to Project Cicero Bay Area. Our project is modeled after the program innovated in New York City in 2001.
Please visit www.projectcicero.org for the history of Project Cicero.