LIBRARY IN A BOX
WEBOR’S SIGNATURE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT
 The West Essex Board of REALTORS®’ award-winning
Library in a Box® has fostered more than three dozen starter libraries of beautiful, new hardcover books in day care centers across Essex County, NJ over the last six years. This signature community service project of the board and its membership, has, by now, touched thousands of preschoolers.
The boxes, each comprised of 30 titles, are underwritten by local real estate brokerages, individual REALTORS®, affiliates and clients who care, as we do, about literacy and love of books. A comfy
Reading Rug® that serves as a warm underpinning for book exploration during the school day and the colorfully painted box that doubles as a bookcase are also included.
These mini-libraries represent the best new writing and illustration for preschoolers, as well as classics enjoyed for generations. Many daycare centers neither have the funds or inclination to provide children with real books that speak to them about who they are and what the world’s about.
Library in a Box® provides the basic underpinning that children need to develop an interest in reading that will serve them well when they enter primary school.
Every year, a committee of engaged REALTORS® gathers to discuss which books will make the final cut, visiting local bookstores to sample both the most popular books on the market and others the committee feels will create the right balance in a box. Books that reflect the diversity emblematic to our local area and the State of New Jersey are always among favorites, as are those published by area authors. The
Library in a Box® committee makes sure there are always books included about dinosaurs, bunnies, and bears – and so much more!
The boxes, presented to daycare centers researched by the committee, are delivered with fanfare, as committee members and celebrity friends read to the children. For those REALTORS® and donors
 who have participated on LIB drop-off day, the rewards are beyond words – children racing to touch the books, listening ever-so-quietly to the readers, participating in the give and take of a good story, and putting dibs on their favorite ones as we leave.
In 2005, the West Essex Board of REALTORS® was awarded the New Jersey Association of REALTORS®’ coveted statewide
Community Service Award for
Library in a Box®. Having found our niche, we see no end to our mission in literacy – to encourage the love of reading among the very young in our midst!
Roberta Plutzik Baldwin
Chair, Library in a Box® Committee
West Essex Board of REALTORS®
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