Barnes and Noble has book drive for hospital
By ASHLEY LUTHERN
aluthern@vindy.com
At a gift wrapping table in Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Brittany Emery, 16, and Rachael Swogger, 17, practiced a finely honed system.
“I tape, she wraps,” Rachael said.
The two Brookfield High School students were volunteering as part of Teen Outreach, and donations for their gift wrapping skills went to Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley.
But Barnes and Noble isn’t just providing a forum for monetary donations for the hospital. It’s also hosting a book drive for four area organizations, including Akron Children’s Hospital.
“It’s a program Barnes and Noble does as a company and each individual store picks the recipients,” said Jennifer Geho, store manager at the location in the Shops at Boardman Park.
The other organizations that will receive donations from the Boardman location are the Beatitude House, First Book of Mahoning County and the Rich Center for Autism.
Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley will use the donations in its book cart system that gives books to patients to read and take home, its “Reach Out and Read” program, in which volunteers read to children in waiting rooms, and also in its effort to distribute books to local doctors’ offices, said JoAnn Stock, director of development at the hospital.
“We’re always in need of books,” Stock said. “And the children often ask for them.”
Barnes and Noble customers may individually select a book and tell their cashier that it is a donation, or they can tell the cashier that they would like to make a donation and the cashier can choose a book from behind the counter. The average cost of a children’s book is $3.99, Geho said.
Last year, Barnes and Noble collected about 2,000 books and the store will probably exceed that number this year, she added.
The book drive will continue until Jan. 2.