More than 25,000 books are on the way into the hands of underserved residents across New York City and Long Island.
They’ll be distributed across the boroughs by Book Fairies a nonprofit that since 2012 has donated 6 million books to Title I schools, educators, and community partners.
The donations come via the world’s largest online retailer of used books, ThriftBooks, which teamed up with the Book Fairies which hosts large-scale distribution events where community leaders and educators can go and get books that might otherwise be beyond budget.
25,000 books is a lot of weight, and on the ground at the Book Fairies central receiving and sorting area, it’s hard work dividing them between reading level and eventual destination. Volunteers sort the received books before using pallet jacks to move them around in large boxes.
Dan Schwartzberg, who works in media relations for the 4Media group which managed the press for the ThriftBooks donation, told GNN that he visited one of Book Fairies’ free book events and saw the impact of the organization first hand.
“They told me a story where a teacher grabbed a stack of books of the table and started crying because she asked for $150 from the school to buy these particular books for her kids and was denied but found them at Book Fairies for free,” Schwartzberg said.
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“Book Fairies has an incredible track record of getting books into the hands of children and families,” said Barbara Hagen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ThriftBooks.
“ThriftBooks is about more than just selling books, we’re focused on saving them and sharing them, and making sure that reading is something everyone has access to. Partnering with Book Fairies allows us to really turn that mission into action and opens up a life of books for so many children and their families.”
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Courtney Collins, Associate Executive Director for Book Fairies said that last year the organization was 28,000 books short of requests from various partners and schools, and that a gift of this size will have an incredible impact.
“That’s 25,000 opportunities to provide what we otherwise would not have been able to provide, so it’s going to change so many lives,” Collins said, noting that inadequate access to books is the number one cause of delayed child literacy.
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