Bridgewater-Raritan Students Look To Donate 1,000-Plus Books

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — A group of Bridgewater-Raritan students is trying to grow its community work beyond the screen with a countywide book drive.

Finance Explained, founded by Mahathi Karthik, Aayush Dhar and Daksh Bansal, is a student-run financial literacy publication who publish weekly articles that make topics like personal finance, investing, economics, and careers easier for students to understand.

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Recently, the founders said they wanted to build on that educational mission by organizing a book donation effort for the local community.

So far, they have collected about 500 books and are working toward a goal of donating more than 1,000 books across Somerset County by the end of September.

"We've been trying to further our efforts towards education beyond just writing articles, which is why we started a book donation drive," the team said in a Q&A with Patch.

Finance Explained said it recently collected and donated around 300 books, primarily to the Green Knoll Fire Company's community book box.

The team said the drive is also benefiting other donation sites in the area.

"The book drive will benefit various book donation boxes in our community," the team said. "Currently, we've donated to the Green Knoll Fire Station and the Ted Blum 4-H Center. We are planning to donate to the American Red Cross and the Bridgewater Library for our next donations."

The students said the response has been encouraging as they continue collecting books.

"We feel really great, but also grateful for this opportunity," the team said. "As a financial literacy blog, we're so excited to be able to give back. We really hope to reach our goal of 1000 books to make a really big effort!"

Community members who want to contribute can do so by contacting the group directly by emailing financeexplainedorg@gmail.com.

The group will arrange a pickup and donate them.

For more information about Finance Explained and its book drive, visit financeexplained.org.

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