Last Chance to Vote for Bridge of Books

Just days remain in Bridge of Books volunteer and Middletown resident Patty Aber's push to be named NASCAR's Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award and earn $100,000 for the Red Bank-based charity that collects and distributes new and gently-used books to underserved children throughout the area.

Aber was awarded $25,000 to be given to the charity of her choice, in this case Bridge of Books, and named a finalist for the award in October after the racing fan and volunteer provided a significant impact on the lives of children through her efforts, the facing organization said in a release.

Abby Daly, executive director of Bridge of Books, said in a previous report that the organization has donated books to Keansburg Schools, , St. Anthony’s Food Bank, , the Long Branch Concordance, and several Long Branch schools. Annually, the organization donates about 30,000 books.

Though the Betty Jane award finalists are chosen by NASCAR, the winner is decided by public vote, which ends this Thursday. The following is a plea from Daly encouraging those who have not yet voted to do so. Along with the request is a list of donations the organization is undertaking in the upcoming weeks:

We are in the home stretch! Voting ends this Thursday. I would like to thank you all for every vote that you have cast so far for our volunteer, Patty Aber. Please take a little bit more of your time to vote for her every day this week at: www.nascar.com/award

Going into the holiday season, I'd like to share with you some of the donations that we will be making over the next few weeks:

We will be once again supporting the Rutgers Special Education Law Clinic at a program they are sponsoring in East Orange, New Jersey for children in foster care.  The program is designed to reinforce the importance of reading at all ages.  We will be providing culturally

• and ethnically diverse books for children from infancy through early teens.
• We are providing books to an inpatient treatment center in Marlboro, New Jersey, for children ages 13-17 with substance abuse problems.  The residents are primarily boys, so we will make a special effort to provide books that are appealing to boys.
• We are providing books to a school in Freehold, New Jersey, where the student body is primarily underprivileged.  When they first contacted us to request books, they asked for 25-30 books per grade.  We will be providing enough books for every child to have at least two books.  There are just over 500 students in the school.
• For the 2nd year in a row, we will be sensing books to several low-income pre-schools in Newark.  For some families, our books will be the only Christmas present in the house.
• For the 3rd year in a row, we will provide new books to Lunch Break, Red Bank, New Jersey, to be distributed as Christmas presents.
• For the 4th year in a row, we will be providing books to St. Mark's, Keansburg, New Jersey, to be distributed as Christmas gifts.
• On December 22, we will take at least 1000 books to the Boys & Girls Club, Asbury Park, New Jersey, and put them out for children to take as many as they want at the Holiday Party.

This is just what I know about as I write this!  We are active and are already thinking about our Read Across America program, which we are looking to expand this year.  Bottom line, there is still a huge unmet need for what we do.  Please take the time to vote and get as many of your friends to vote as you can over the next several days.  This is a national contest - so send it on to everyone!