About a week ago, a big box arrived at our office. With everything from Captain Underpants to an illustrated Secret Garden, it was overflowing with beautiful, brand-new children’s books.

Thanks to a successful bookdrive by Bud and Bella’s Bookshop of Randolph, Vermont, we now have 50 books to add to our library!

Today I spoke with the owner of the bookstore, Hillary Leicher, who told me the many ways she garnered excitement for the bookdrive. Hillary, compelled by the mission of CLiF and the children we serve, shared our story with her customers and challenged them to help her collect 50 books for CLiF in a two month time period. She posted flyers in her store and around town, spoke with her customers about the bookdrive, and even gave the information to the local newspapers. She found, however, that the biggest response came from her post on Facebook, drawing several customers into the store on the very day she made the announcement!

Hillary offered her customers a 50% discount on all books purchased to donate to CLiF, and she paid the shipping to send the books to us. She was struck by the many people who jumped in to help – readers of all ages who picked out books to donate and even enthusiastic customers who gave money for the purchase of more books for the donation box.

With kids of her own, Hillary has seen firsthand that keeping reading as a daily part of children’s lives is essential, and knowing that CLiF’s mission is to do the same with children across New Hampshire and Vermont, she was compelled to support us. Now, thanks to her hard work, we have a fantastic collection of new books to give to young readers and writers across the Twin States!

We feel quite lucky that bookstores, businesses, and schools are so enthusiastic about helping strengthen our collection of books for our programs. For more information on making book donations or running a book drive of your own, please contact me at gretchen@clifonline.org.