The Gold Coast Standard and Darien Real Estate

Darien Book Aid Does a World of Good.

My husband is a voracious reader. Two books a week is not an uncommon occurrence. While many Darien residents can be found shopping downtown, sipping latte at Espresso Neat. or utilizing the incredible resources at the Darien Library,we can regularly be found at Barnes and Noble loading up on thrillers and spy novels.(hardcovers only, of course)

As a result, if I turn my head for a minute I can be  knee deep in the aforementioend books. I’ve tried passing them along to office mates,selling them on Amazon and sometimes just  throwing them away.(that doesnt feel good at all). But, they just keep coming back.Over the years I have also brought boxes of books to a place called,DARIEN BOOK AID.Darien Book Aid is located at 1926 Post Road in DarienCT.                                The building is adorable and welcoming .The dropoff area is little more than a storefront.I’d never seen the area behind the storefront though,until the other day, that is.

I was amazed. There were books everywhere floor to ceiling, sorted by subject matter.On the table were boxes ready to be shipped to addresses like Tanzania and Uganda. DARIEN BOOK AID you see, fulfills specific requests to establish libraries and supplement reading materials in foreign outposts around the world. Their number one customer is the Peace Corps.

For 20 years or more I’ve been donating mysteries , thrillers and old cookbooks thinking they were going to good use.Actually, this is NOT what Darien Book Aid wants or needs.If you wish to donate books to this organization the following is a list of what will help Darien Book Aid.

TEXT BOOKS -NO OLDER THAN 10 YEARS

CHILDRENS BOOKS ( English or Spanish)

CLASSICS OR SIMPLIFIED CLASSICS

DICTIONARIES,THESAURUSES, ETC.

BOOKS ON VEGETABLE GARDENING OR AGRICULTURE

SCIENCE AND HEALTH BOOKS

ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT BOOKS

PAPER BACK FICTION 

All books must be in impeccable condition with NO HIGHLIGHTING.

This is a great organization,run fully by volunteers. Their singular expense is postage. Donate books if you can.If not, donate money.It will do a world of good.If you don’t believe me,go to Darien Book Aid.  Peek behind the door that leads to the back of the building, watch the book elves at work, and BE AMAZED. You can contact Darien Book Aid at 203-655-2777 or go to www.darienbookaid.org. The New York Times has featured the organization on their book blog too. http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/let-them-read-books/ Just one more good reason to live in Darien,CT.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Buyers, Community Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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