NORWESCAP/First Book–Hunterdon County Gives 2,750 New Books to Local Literacy Programs Serving Children In Need

NORWESCAP/First Book-Hunterdon County announced today that 2,750 new books will be given to 8 literacy programs that serve Hunterdon County children in need. This was made possible by the Borders/Walden Books holiday promotion and the generosity of their customers.  Recipients of Borders gift cards  include Public Health Nursing, DesMares School, Early Intervention, Calvary Church, Right At Home Day Care, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Start Smart Academy and Country Tyme Day Care.  Each child will receive one book per month for a year, which enables the children to start their own home libraries they can share with their siblings and families.  They will also receive a bookplate on which to place their names celebrating the importance of book ownership. 

“The book grant we received from First Book-Hunterdon County will enable our program to provide new books every month to each child that we serve,” stated Director of Right At Home Day Care.  “The children’s faces light up when they discover they can keep these books and take them home to read over and over again with their siblings and families.”

Additional literacy programs in the Hunterdon County area that have received book grants in the past include: Lambertville Academy, ARC of Hunterdon County, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Hunterdon Youth Services and Fisherman’s Mark.  NORWESCAP/First Book-Hunterdon County is part of First Book’s national network of volunteer-led Advisory Boards who provide new books to children in need in communities across the country.  . 

NORWESCAP/First Book-Hunterdon County has been distributing books to programs serving low-income children since 2001.  The First Book Advisory Board is comprised of volunteers from the community and is always in need of volunteers.  

About First Book
First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.  In neighborhoods across the country, First Book Advisory Boards unite leaders from all sectors of the community to provide books to children in literacy programs, shelters for battered children, housing project initiatives, soup kitchens, after-school programs and other community-based efforts reaching children living at or below the poverty line.  In the past three years, First Book has distributed over 20 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide. 

For more information about First Book, or to make a donation to help children in need, please visit www.firstbook.org.

NORWESCAP is a non-profit community action agency established in 1965 that creates opportunities for over 30,000 low-income people in northwest NJ by providing a large portfolio of self-sufficiency and emergency services.  The mission of NORWESCAP is “Fighting Poverty.  Creating Opportunities.  Changing Lives.”