RSVP Center to benefit from bookstore’s Holiday Book Drive – Essex News Daily
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The RSVP Center of Essex and Hudson Counties, a program of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ, has announced it will be the recipient of Barnes & Noble Livingston’s annual Holiday Book Drive. Books collected will benefit RSVP’s Reading Buddies program, which matches older adult volunteers with elementary school students. Volunteers are reading virtually this year to improve reading comprehension skills and form an intergenerational bond with their students.
The Holiday Book Drive takes place from now through Dec. 12, and provides customers the opportunity to donate books to locally designated nonprofit organizations. Barnes & Noble, located at 112 Eisenhower Parkway in Livingston, will be collecting books for Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ.
“The Holiday Book Drive is a favorite program of both booksellers and customers across the country,” said Tracy Vidakovich, vice president of business development for Barnes & Noble. “Customers often purchase and donate a personal childhood favorite as a way to pass on a holiday tradition to a child in their local community.”
Reading Buddies introduces the love of books and increases literacy in young children. Early literacy is linked with academic achievement, higher graduation rates and enhanced productivity in adult life.
“Reading Buddies has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit in a new remote format,” RSVP Program manager Julie Cramer said. “In this current moment, when schools and teachers have to work harder than ever to give students an education, our volunteers are able to offer an intervention that promotes literacy and learning. We are so appreciative of Barnes & Noble’s Holiday Book Drive, which helps us provide books to our volunteers and students to enhance their experience with the program.”