Improving literacy and education worldwide
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Due to the Covid 19 Pandemic our workshop is open for volunteers by appointment only. A maximum of 3 volunteers are allowed in the workshop at a time. Volunteers are required to wear masks and cleaning is done to keep everyone safe.
Book donations are currently ONLY being accepted on Thursday afternoons and Fridays. The foyer will be open during these times and books can be dropped off.
We have resumed shipping books and are facing increased international mailing costs due to the pandemic. Please support us with a financial contribution so we can continue providing targeted reading material to those in need.
Contact us for answers to any other questions.
All are welcome, including students, senior citizens, and busy professionals looking to volunteer at a great organization.
Volunteer opportunities include:
Volunteers can work mult
All are welcome, including students, senior citizens, and busy professionals looking to volunteer at a great organization.
Volunteer opportunities include:
Volunteers can work multiple times per week or once a month, depending on your availability. Many books can be sorted in one hour. It takes approximately two hours to select and pack an order.
Click 'Contact Us' on the side bar to find out more or set up your first volunteer session!
We are looking for people who believe in the power of literacy and eduaction to improve our world.
You can help us with our mission by:
*donating money
*volunteering with us
* donating books
Darien Book Aid is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that improves literacy and education worldwide and builds a foundation of peace, understanding and friendship through the free distribution of books. Darien Book Aid sends hand-selected books in response to specific requests from Peace Corps Volunteers, libraries and schools all
Darien Book Aid is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that improves literacy and education worldwide and builds a foundation of peace, understanding and friendship through the free distribution of books. Darien Book Aid sends hand-selected books in response to specific requests from Peace Corps Volunteers, libraries and schools all over the world. We also donate books domestically to US organizations in need including schools, libraries, prisons, hospitals and Native American groups.
Want to know what's happening in and around the workshop? Interested in our impact on book recipients?
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Your generous donation will fund our mission of improving literacy and education worldwide. Click the donate button below to donate via Paypal.
OR
You can send a check to:
Darien Book Aid Plan, Inc.
1926 Post Road
Darien, Connecticut 06820 USA
Donate a New Book: Ordering books off of our Amazon Wishlist is easy and fast and ensures that you are donating a much needed book with global appeal. See our Amazon Wishlist link by clicking the image on the right.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1UF7ZSAKO5KZ/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1
Book Donation Guidelines for Gently-Used Books: Thank you so much for thinking to donate books to us. Book donations may be dropped off at anytime. Our foyer is open 24 hour per day. We are only accepting the following types of books (in good condition): Children's Books Young Adult Books High School Classics Medical Textbooks (<10 years old) Business Textbooks (<10 years old) Science Textbooks (<10 years old) Social Studies Textbooks (<10 years old) Reference Books (including atlases <10 years old) Spanish Books for Children/Teens DIY Books. Our books go to learners primarily in the developing world. Our recipients have very few or no books and each book is used by many different people, so we ask that all donations be in good to excellent condition with no yellowing pages, broken spine, musty smell, underlining etc.
Parking: When dropping off book donations please park in the one space in front of our building at 1926 Post Road. Please, do not park in our immediate neighbor's lots.
BOOKS WE NEED
We can always use the following kinds of books:
* Children's Books for all ages - preschool through High School, fiction, non-fiction including Step Into Reading, first chapter books, comic books, manga and graphic novels
* Classics and simplified classics
* Children’s Dictionaries and Thesauruses; Picture Dictionaries
* Short Story Collections
* Grammar books for all ages
* Teaching methods and materials
* English as a Second Language (ESL) books and materials
* Children’s books in Spanish or French for native speakers in all subjects
* Spanish/English and French/English dictionaries
* Crafts/Home Arts: How to sewing, cooking, knitting, etc.
* DIY books: carpentry, masonry, auto repair, bee keeping, etc.
* Construction/Industrial Arts
* Medical and Nursing textbooks - no more than 10 years old
* Law books suitable for the developing world
* High School and College Textbooks, excluding American History -- no more than 5 years old
* Computer and IT training latest titles only
* Business, banking, finance, accounting, entrepreneurship
* International Relations, conflict resolution, globalization
* Agriculture, vegetable gardening, beekeeping, animal husbandry
* Ecology, environment and climate change
* Atlases -- no more than 10 years old
* World maps
* National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazines no more than 5 years old
* Bibles
BOOKS WE CANNOT USE:
* Large format coffee table books
* Gourmet cookbooks and diet books
* Hardcover popular fiction like James Patterson, Nelson DeMille etc.
* Textbooks for learning a foreign language (French, Spanish, German etc.)
* American History textbooks
If you have books we cannot use, your local libary or these libraries may like your books. These libraries accept books year round, but please visit their websites or call to confirm donation procedures.
Ferguson Library
At the corner of Bedford & Broad Streets
Stamford
(203) 351-8277
http://www.friendsoffergusonlibrary.org/donate.htm
Pequot Library
720 Pequot Avenue
Southport
(203) 259-0346
http://www.pequotlibrary.org/index.php/donations
We are happy to consider requests for books from schools, libraries, community centers, non-profit literacy programs and health organizations where the books will be used by a large number of readers. If you would like to submit a request, please send an e-mail to darienbookaid@yahoo.com. Please include the following information:
We are happy to consider requests for books from schools, libraries, community centers, non-profit literacy programs and health organizations where the books will be used by a large number of readers. If you would like to submit a request, please send an e-mail to darienbookaid@yahoo.com. Please include the following information:
If you would like to request a box of books, please write a letter (preferably by email, but also accepted via standard postal mail), telling us about your work, your students (if you are a teacher) and how you intend to use the books. When using email, put your letter in the body of an email, not as an attachment, to Peggy Minnis at Book
If you would like to request a box of books, please write a letter (preferably by email, but also accepted via standard postal mail), telling us about your work, your students (if you are a teacher) and how you intend to use the books. When using email, put your letter in the body of an email, not as an attachment, to Peggy Minnis at BookAid@aol.com.
In order to arrange a books shipment, Darien Book Aid needs to know the following:
1. That you are a PCV, with a paragraph or two about your work and book needs
2. Your COS date
3. The ages of your students, if the books are intended for student use
4. The US grade reading equivalent of your readers
5. Your mailing address, in English. If you use non-Roman characters, be sure to include that version of your address.
6. Your phone number there. We need to put this on the label.
7. The types of books you would find most useful.
We normally send between twenty and thirty pounds of books, so keep that in mind when you create your wish list. In order for our volunteers to take an interest in filling your request, it helps to provide them with that initial paragraph or two about you and your work. They like to know who you are, where you are and what you are doing. Good writing always pays off with a more accurate filling of your order. This does not have to be an essay, just a couple of paragraphs. Once that information is received, the request will created for our volunteers to fulfil. Remember that Book Aid is an all-volunteer organization, so the speed of our response to your request depends upon the generosity of our volunteers and books donors.
If you are sending a request by regular mail, send it to:
Peggy MinnisPeace Corps DeskDarien Book Aid Plan, Inc.1926 Post RoadDarien, Connecticut 06820 USA
Overseas shipments go via the most cost effective method available at that time and can take between three weeks and three months. The packages are stamped "Used Books, No Value," so there should not be a problem with customs. Book Aid normally sends about 25 pounds of books, so send the list in the order of priority. If you absolutely need only a class set of a book, tell us the genre you want since we can seldom supply an exact title. It takes up to 6 months to receive your order.
If you would like the teachers at your school to request the books themselves, please have them e-mail Kitty Graves at DarienBookAid.International@gmail.com
We are happy to consider requests for a box of books from schools, libraries, and community centers where the books will be used by a large number of learners. If you would like to request a box of books, please send an email to DarienBookAid.International@gmail.com. Because of severe financial constraints and the ever rising cost of
We are happy to consider requests for a box of books from schools, libraries, and community centers where the books will be used by a large number of learners. If you would like to request a box of books, please send an email to DarienBookAid.International@gmail.com. Because of severe financial constraints and the ever rising cost of shipping, we are only able to send a small box of books weighing 10-12 kilos for each qualifying request. Keep that in mind as you provide the following information in the body of your email. (We do not open attachments.)
Please include this information:
1. The name of your institution and the type of education or services you offer 2. The ages of the people who are the intended readers
3. The English reading level of the intended readers – beginning, intermediate or advanced
4. The types of books that would best fill your needs – textbooks (please indicate the specific subject and level preferred), reference books, story books, fiction, non-fiction etc. (Please be as specific as possible. We want to fill your needs as closely as we can.)
5. Your mailing address and phone number in the exact form it should appear on our mailing label. We cannot fulfill your request if you do not provide a phone number. If you are writing from Ukraine, your address must include the phone number, postal code and the physical address to which the box will be delivered. If your mailing address is in the Cyrillic alphabet, and mail can only reach you if it is written in Cyrillic, please include your address in both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets in your email.