“There is no frigate like a book,” Emily Dickinson wrote in her poem of the same title. It can help you set a course for the past or chart the future, visit the all-too-familiar or transport you to someplace new.
“Books in Hand” is a GoFundMe campaign to support economically challenged students throughout Westchester County. The initiative plans to place 5,000 packets into the hands of students as directed by the hardest hit school districts in the county.
Organized by Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival with the help of One Book Westchester and End Book Deserts, along with the support of Barnes & Noble and participating local authors, “Books in Hand” will see to it that bags of age-appropriate books selected by teachers will be distributed to students when families receive weekly grocery packs. The goal is to make the first book packets available as quickly as possible with a plan to have the 5,000 packets distributed by mid-May. “Books in Hands” wants to ensure that kids all over Westchester have access to books while they are learning at home, particularly in households where books and computer technology may be scarce.
The first school districts to receive book bags will be Mount Vernon and White Plains, with expansion in the coming weeks to students in Ossining, Yonkers and Mount Kisco public schools.
To donate to the “Books In Hand” program, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/books-in-hands-in-westchester-county.
– edited by Georgette Gouveia
