3 Ways to Get Involved in Hindi’s Libraries and Give Back Through Books

Shortly after Hindi Kanarfogel passed away from complications of Crohn’s disease last year, her husband Dovid Kanarfogel and Leslie Gang teamed up to create Hindi’s Libraries and carry on Hindi’s book-loving, child-focused legacy. The nonprofit collects new and gently used children’s books from across the New York area to donate to hospitals, schools, and other organizations in need. So far, Kanarfogel and Gang have collected about 675 boxes of books from local communities that will go to kids in other local communities–recycling books, making sure kids always have awesome reading material, and enabling families to give back and make a difference.

Wondering how you can get involved in Hindi’s Libraries this fall? Gang has shared the three best ways to lend a hand to the organization. Right now Kanarfogel and Gang run the entire operation themselves with a team of volunteers, so there are several things you can do to make sure as many books get to local organizations as possible.

1. Volunteer to start a book drive in your community.

You can run a drive through your local school, temple, church, Elks Lodge, and more, Gang says. She will supply you will promotional materials and language, and all you have to do is promote the drive in your community. Gang says people have managed to collect thousands of books!

2. Volunteer to handle what happens after you collect the books.

In order for books to make it to organizations that need them, Gang and Kanarfogel have to pick up books from drives, perform quality checks, sort them into categories (infant stories, early readers, chapter books, middle school books, high school novels, and more), label each book individually, pack them into boxes, and ship them out. If your teen needs volunteer hours or your kid just loves sorting books, Gang will provide you with quality checking and sorting instructions. Once the books are sorted, you can label them using labels that will be provided, so all Gang and Kanarfogel have to do is box them!