The Children's Book Bank

I first found out about the Children's Book Bank when I was looking for organizations to possibly donate to during last holiday season. While that didn't pan out, they were someone I kept in mind; and, I actually ended up volunteering with them for their Earth Day Book Drive earlier this year.

The Children's Book Bank is a Portland-based organization whose purpose is to provide books to low-income children. They accept donations from the community and have volunteers repair and package books to get them ready for kids. These kids not only get to have their own libraries now but they are getting a head start in reading which will benefit them in the long run during their school- and adult- years beyond.

The Book Drive was such a rewarding experience for so many reasons. Literacy- especially childhood literacy- has become an important issue in my life so anything I can do to help kids get access to books is great. It was also nice to talk to the community and see how many people took time to stop by and donate.

When my work- McKenzie Books- started a sustainability club and was looking for volunteering opportunities, I immediately mentioned the Children's Book Bank to them. Many people were interested which led to nine of my co-workers and a couple of their family and friends spending part of a beautiful Saturday afternoon indoors cleaning up books for kids.

It was hard not to share stories of books we read as kids (or were read to us) when we came across ones we remembered from childhood. All in all, it was another rewarding experience for me- and I hope to everyone else involved.