What is PAYA?

Officially, PAYA is a coalition of Pennsylvania’s young adult authors, bloggers, librarians, readers, and other book-lovers. Our mission is two-fold:

1. To share the love we have for young adult literature with others in our state.
2. To raise money to support Pennsylvania’s libraries, with a focus on helping build Young Adult library collections and Young Adult services.

Basically, though, it’s just a group of YA lovers trying to raise money for PA libraries.

Why was PAYA started?

PAYA was started because I (Harmony) do a ton of work with my library’s teen section and I wanted to do some major fundraising for it because the budget was pretty nonexistant. But then I realized it wasn’t just *my* library that was hurting so I enlisted the help of a few fellow PAers and the idea has just become bigger and better since then.

What’s the Livejournal auction? Who can submit an item for auctioning?

The Livejournal auction is the first major fundraiser. Anyone can submit an item for auctioning – all you need is a Livejournal account. The full details are here. Right now, it’s off to a slow start but it’s my hope that as the month progresses, more and more people will become aware and start bidding and adding items. All of the proceeds will be donated to libraries across PA.

How can people get involveed with PAYA?

People can get involved with PAYA in a bunch of different ways. If you’d like to help out in general, just send us an email. There’s also tons of fundraisers and book drives, as well as other things, that will be posted on the website so be sure to check that out!

Do you plan on holding events throughout Pennsylvania?

We have one major YA Festival planned for next summer which will take place in Philadelphia. Details about that will be coming in the next few months. We’re also working on doing different in-person fundraisers across the state too.

Anything else you want to add?

Just that any participation is REALLY appreciated, especially in the fundraising events. PA libraries just had their budgets cut by a LOT of money and they can use the money now more than ever. I know that most people don’t have a lot of money to spare but even if it’s only a dollar or two, PAYA will put it to use that will benefit the whole state.