Lorrie Stapleton and Doug Francefort with the volunteers at the Greenwich Book Shed
What an amazing year this has been! I feel so lucky to have stumbled upon the concept of matching up wonderfully generous book donors with kids in need. In our first year, Julio and I were able to deliver about 39,000 gently used books to 52 schools and community organizations in Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich. Doug and Gerhard expanded our reach with 8,000 books to senior centers, hospitals and a host of local public book cases.
This would not have been possible without the weekly donations from the residents of Greenwich who provided 26,000 books via the Greenwich Recycling Book Shed, and the residents of Darien who provided over 10,000 books via Darien Book Aid. Each of these organizations have many dedicated volunteers who provide endless hours accepting and sorting books. We are also very thankful to the many schools, teachers, donations centers and individuals who heard about our service and got in touch with some fabulous book donations.
Looking back over the many, many places we have distributed books this year, it has really been the generosity of spirit of all of the people we have met involved in the schools, daycare, and charitable organizations that stand out. We really look forward to expanding our reach in 2016.
Happy New Year to everyone and thanks so much for your support!
Lorrie Stapleton