Questions? Email jobs@thehpalliance.org or check the site.

It’s been just five days, and already Accio Books! is turning out to be one of the most exciting campaigns in the history of the HP Alliance!  To keep the action going, we’ll be holding a Livestream this Sunday, March 7 at 6:00 PM EST with Paul and Joe DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters!

This will be the first of four Accio Books! Livestream shows, one for each House. Each show will feature the head of its respective house: Paul DeGeorge of Gryffindor, Lauren Fairweather of Hufflepuff, Maureen Johnson of Ravenclaw, and Brian Ross of Slytherin.

Although each of you are only competing as members of one house, we strongly encourage you to attend all four Livestream shows, the first one this Sunday!  Tune in to our Livestream channel to view the show, and for more information about Accio Books and how to donate, visit our official Accio Books page.

We’ll see you there!

While all of you are competing against other houses, our HPA chapters are ALSO working on a competition. Chapters compete in the “Chapter Cup,” against other chapters to see which chapter can donate the most books locally. The coolest part is that it’s not just chapter members donating - instead, we’re taking this to our communities by holding book drives and asking other people to donate as well.

This month, we have chapters donating to schools, libraries, hospitals, and more - anywhere the books will go directly into use and benefit communities. And throughout March, we’ll be blogging here and in the Common Room about how chapters are doing, the places we’re donating, and other fun stories from our adventures of taking the HPA into our local communities.

This is also a great time of year to look for a local chapter near you. Head on over to our Find a Chapter page and see if there are any chapters in your area that you can get involved with. If there’s not a chapter near you - never fear! You can always start a new one.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect: tomorrow at 5:45 am EST a Boeing 727 carrying critical life-saving medical supplies will be leaving Miami and two hours later will be landing in Port-au-Prince and will profoundly affect (in many cases save the lives of) thousands of Haitians. The name of the plane is Harry (as in Harry Potter!). It’s the first plane sent by all of us who made “Helping Haiti Heal” possible and it will not be the last!!! Here’s a picture of “Harry” on the calendar at Partners In Health’s Situation Room of cargo planes to be sent out:

In the Harry Potter Alliance we often demonstrate the power of what we can do when we all come together. But last week, it went to a new level as we presented Partners In Health with a check for $123,754.41 (YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT HERE!). Here’s me presenting the chack to Jackson Compere who many of you heard interviewed on the first Helping Haiti Heal livestream:

On behalf of the HPA and Helping Haiti Heal, Andrew Slack HPA presents Jackson Compere of Partners In Health with a check of $123,754.41

On a personal level, it’s difficult to describe what that experience felt like: to be holding a check that represented the goodwill and generosity of thousands of you from all over the world who have come together through our love of story to uplift the story of thousands and thousands of Haitians at this critical time; to meet amazing staff at Partners In Health who have been literally working around the clock saving lives and so graciously let me know how grateful, amazed, and in awe they are by our community - how there is no way they can put into words what the generosity and ingenuity of this community means in protecting thousands of people; to meet the Executive Director of Partners In Health and realize that she is Roald Dahl’s daughter - a man who not only inspired her to start working in Haiti but whose very stories have inspired our hearts and souls since the time we were young children. She told me how much it means that the fans of a work that her father would have loved have come together to help thousands of Haitians.

I walked out of that office dazed and in awe of what we all of us have done. In awe of every person and organization who donated prizes, every individual who donated money, of Melissa Anelli and the entire team at Leaky, of Mugglenet, Wizard Rockers, HPANA, Fiction Alley, of every facet of the Harry Potter fandom!, of the Nerdfighters who went above and beyond any expectation that any of us could have ever had, of the twenty other fan communities who joined us in an unprecedented coalition to help Haiti: a coalition of united fan communities that have only started to come together to renew the spirit of our lives and the spirit of our world.

Join us tonight, send your prayers and best wishes with “Harry” tomorrow, and continue to join us in the weeks and months to come as we continue shining through dark and difficult times with the greatest weapon that exists: LOVE.

If you cannot make the show, no worries! Winners will be contacted via email, and you will have one week to confirm. See you all there!

As you might have heard, today begins our month long  Accio Books campaign.  We’re all really excited for everything we have planned ahead – Livestream meetings, Ning discussions, and secret projects, not to mention all of you! This month is going to be busy and full of opportunities to get involved with Accio Books and donate to the Delta Center for Culture and Learning. You can send your books to the following address:

Delta Center for Culture and Learning
Delta State University
1417 Maple St.
Cleveland, MS 38733
Attn: Luther Brown

You can also donate books locally in your area, whether it be a local library, organization, or even a shelter.  More information about book donations can be found on the Accio Books website.  You can also register and report your book donations on the Enter Your Points Here section of the AB website so that they can be counted towards house points.  Also please remember that we are using the honor system, so please be truthful about the number of books you’ve donated.

We’ll have lots of exciting activity on the Ning all month, so make sure to keep an eye out for your House Prefects’ secret projects, and check out discussions that will be happening within your house and the Harry Potter Alliance community! We’ll be having regular Livestream calls every week with your Heads of House, so keep an ear out for those as well!

Happy book hunting!  And remember The Weapon We Have is Love!

“The aircraft ‘Harry’, ‘Ron’ and ‘Hermione’ may not be able to cast spells, but the cargo they are carrying may as well be magic,” said PIH’s Director of Procurement Kathryn Kempton. “They will save thousands of lives by providing desperately needed medicines and supplies to the people of Haiti.”

The final Helping Haiti Heal show will be on Tuesday, March 2nd at 8:30pm EST where we will be picking the prize winners LIVE on the air! Join us at http://www.thehpalliance.org/haiti. In the meantime, check out our 2nd annual book drive, Accio Books!, starting this Saturday with another live show at 4:00pm EST.

Join us this Saturday, February 27, from 4:00 - 6:00pm EST on Livestream as we get ready to kick off Accio Books!  The show will feature special guests from the Mississippi Delta, as well as our Heads of Houses: Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters for Gryffindor, Lauren Fairweather from the Moaning Myrtles and Five Awesome Girls for Hufflepuff, YA Author Maureen Johnson for Ravenclaw, and Brian Ross of Draco and the Malfoys for Slytherin!!!!!

Helping Haiti Heal raised over $123,000 over the course of two weeks for Partners in Health. We are thrilled and astounded at the generosity of Harry Potter fans and we hope to see you there!