In the aftermath of one of the hardest-hitting storms Westchester County has ever encountered, the Scarsdale Public Library is proud to do its part in contributing to the relief efforts following Hurricane Sandy.
In partnership with Literacy in Motion (LIM), an organization that leverages the existing resources of New York City's public libraries to make reading materials available through book-vending kiosks, the library held a children’s book drive. The Friends of the Scarsdale Library generously donated popular books for adults. A total of 134 boxes of books were collected.
The library acknowledges that there are many Sandy relief efforts underway in Westchester County and the New York City area, but shares the LIM’s view that they are mostly focused on the more immediate and essential restoration components such as housing, clean food/water, etc., which are obviously extremely important. As literacy-related organizations, the Scarsdale Public Library and LIM believe strongly that the book drive can contribute in an equally important manner rallying behind the importance of books in our culture as part of a return to normalcy. Joe Musso, Director of LIM, commented, “While books are not an essential need in the way housing is, we believe that creating pop-up libraries in the emergency shelters and food pantries serving Sandy victims will go a long way to restoring a sense of normalcy and improving the quality-of-life of those that are shelter-bound for the foreseeable future.”
With this in mind, the Scarsdale Library collected new and used books that will then be relocated to temporary pop-up libraries in city emergency shelters and made available at the city emergency recovery facilities in the primary areas of the Rockaways, Staten Island, and Coney Island. This is an entirely free service provided by LIM, relying on the support of donated books and volunteer hours, and neither the library nor LIM will in any way profit from this initiative.
Elizabeth Bermel, director of the Scarsdale Library further noted, “We know that so many of our friends and family in the community were affected by Hurricane Sandy, and the aftermath of this terrible event hits close to our hearts. We are encouraged by so many other organizations who are participating in the relief efforts and we are gratified in doing our part. I am impressed, but not surprised by the generosity of the Scarsdale community.”
The Scarsdale Public Library is located at 54 Olmsted Road, Scarsdale, NY, 10583. Phone: (914) 722-1300. Website: www.scarsdalelibrary.org
