Book people have always been a fascinating lot, interested in social issues, human issues, the doings of societies, freedom of speech, education and more. A good work begun by one of our community, TWC’s good friend and former Thursday night regular Lois Cantwell:
As a lifelong booklover, whenever I’ve spied discarded books I’ve been tempted to snag them and rescue them from whatever sad fate awaited.
In June 2011, this impulse became a notion and soon a reality when good friend Andrea Hirschfeld and I teamed up to create bookBgone – an organization devoted to taking books (and other media) from those who no longer wanted or needed them and get them into the hands of people and organizations who did.
We figured that we’d make a few pickups and drive and/or mail some boxes to schools, community centers, to servicemen overseas and to prisons – keeping the books off dusty and ignored bookshelves and out of N.J. landfills. A win-win.
We never imagined that after only six months we would have processed close to 40,000 volumes (about 16.5 tons of books!) and received recognition, support and thanks from recipients all over the U.S., from local press and, most recently, from N.J. Governor, Chris Christie.
Over the last six months we have supported various initiatives with books including:
• Community centers in Portland, Oregon; and Newark and Hoboken, New Jersey
• Schools in Joplin, Missouri and MacRoberts, Kentucky
• Food banks in Maine (statewide) and Brooklyn, New York
We are continually seeking new avenues for book donations so we welcome your ideas and input. You can contact us directly via our website: www.bookBgone.com or 908-912-6652 or email info@bookbgone.com
If you know of other good book works that we should share, please send them along to us. We’d be honored to feature them on our blog.
