White Plains READS! Annual Book Drive

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On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, at 11:00 am stores across the country and White Plains READS! will launch its annual Holiday Book Drive with Mayor Thomas Roach.

The Holiday Book Drive, takes place until January 1, 2012 providing an opportunity for customers to donate books through locally designated non-profit organizations.

Click for a story on last year's Holiday Book Drive kick-off event.

Holiday Book Drive recipients throughout the country include schools, libraries, literacy organizations, family social service agencies and homeless centers.

This year, the , located at 230 Main Street in White Plains will be partnering with White Plains READS! to collect books for El Centro Hispano and the Coachman Family Center.

“The Holiday Book Drive is one of our most popular community partnerships,” says Sarah DiFrancesco, director of community relations for Barnes & Noble. “Our booksellers and customers get to share the pure joy of giving a book to a child in need.  And because each Barnes & Noble store chooses its local non-profit beneficiary, the donations are very personal.”

"I am so proud of White Plains READS! for its success over the last 3 years in distributing over 12,000 books to children in need. And thank you Barnes & Noble for partnering with the City of White Plains on this important initiative. It is so important for children to have access to books and to make reading a part of their everyday lives. El Centro Hispano and The Coachman Family Center are the perfect vehicles to make sure that this wish becomes a reality," said Mayor Thomas Roach.

El Centro Hispano serves the Hispanic families to help support, assist, and strengthen the community, to help them become self sufficient. The organization also works with immigrant families to help them assimilate into the new culture. 

The Coachman Family Center provides housing for those who are temporarily in need of a place to stay.  The Center also provides youth development activities for the children while are residents at the center.

To find out how to participate in the Holiday Book Drive, contact the Barnes & Noble City Center Community Relations Manager, M. Grace Cantwell at (914) 397-0428 or Bhavana Pahwa, Program Director of White Plains READS! at 914-422-1378.

ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 704 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 635 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. 

Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

About White Plains READS!

White Plains READS! is a community-wide collaboration born out of the White Plains Cares Coalition that promotes reading among youth in White Plains.

More than 35 community partners representing schools, local government , youth serving agencies, parents, youth , business and other entities have come together to ensure that all youth have access to quality reading materials and are able to procure the resources needed to develop their reading skills.

White Plains READS! is proud to report that in the last 3 years more than 12,000 books have been distribute to youth throughout White Plains.