Livingston bookstore donates books to Reading Buddies program

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The RSVP Center of Essex and Hudson Counties, a program of JFS MetroWest, will receive books collected from the Barnes & Noble Livingston annual Holiday Book Drive. Books collected with benefit RSVP’s Reading Buddies Program, which matches older adult volunteers with elementary school students to improve reading comprehension skills.

The drive will take place through Dec. 31 and provides customers at Barnes & Noble, located at 112 Eisenhower Parkway in Livingston, the opportunity to donate books to JFS.

“The Holiday Book Drive is a favorite program of both booksellers and customers across the country,” said Tracy Vidakovich, Barnes & Noble’s vice president of business development. “Customers often purchase and donate a personal childhood favorite as a way to pass on a holiday tradition to a child in their local community.”

Reading Buddies has shown to be effective in helping to increase literacy, reading comprehension and vocabulary in children in grades K through second.

“Reading Buddies is a unique program that connects children and volunteers through books,” RSVP program manager Julie Cramer said. “The older adults read to the children every week throughout the school year, forming a warm relationship based on the love of reading.”

For more information, call 973-765-9050 or visit www.jfsmetrowest.org.