Around 50 congregants from The Young Israel of Queens Valley gathered at the Flushing synagogue on Dec. 15 for a day of community service, organizing a total of 1,500 books donated to others by Hindi’s Libraries, a nonprofit organization that collects new and gently used books to distribute around the world.
Earlier this year, Leslie Gang, co-founder of Hindi’s Libraries, initiated the #giftofliteracy campaign encouraging supporters around the community and world to donate books.
The donations benefit Hindi’s Libraries and commemorates late 32-year-old educator, Dr. Hindi Krinsky. To date, Hindi’s Libraries has collected more than 75,000 books, which are distributed to approximately 375 organizations spanning across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Israel and India.
“There are people in California running a book drive, people in New Jersey running a book drive, and the goal is to let people know that the gift of literacy is so important because there are so many kids at home with no books,” said Leslie Gang, co-founder of the nonprofit. “Whether it’s a book drive or sorting event, it’s one way people are giving the gift of literacy.”
After coordinating with Linda Cohen, who arranged the afternoon at her temple at 141-55 77th Ave., Gang delivered approximately 15 boxes of gently used books that were collected by various members of the New York community. Gang asked volunteers to review the books to make sure they’re in good condition, organize them by reading level and then packaged appropriately. The books will then be labeled with a dedication sticker and shipped to a recipient organization in the upcoming weeks.
“It’s always very meaningful for me when someone who had a relationship with Hindi reaches out and chooses to get involved,” Gang said. “For Linda to contact and share an interest in a collaboration, it made an impact because a whole new group of people are exposed to our mission and organization allowing for our story to be shared.”
“It was beautiful to see the Queens community be a part of the #giftofliteracy movement as they dedicated their afternoon to do good in conjunction with the nonprofit organization,” Gang added.
