Be a Voracious Reader, Support a Good Cause

Reading can open vistas, but did you know it can also enable you—in one step-- to contribute to a hand-picked cause in our community?

The Voracious Reader book store lets you do just that in its "Books For Good" program: On the first Thursday of every month, ten percent of all book sales will be donated to a specific non-profit group.

On May 6^th, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., proceeds are benefiting the Westchester Children's Museum, an interactive museum and learning resource currently under construction and scheduled to open 2011 in Rye Playland's old bathhouse.

"Thursday is 
an easy way to be an everyday philanthropist," says store owner Francine Lucidon. The program is in addition to frequent book signings, story times and workshops that hum through the store.

The Voracious Reader, which opened in 2007, offers books for children and teens, and has a section for grown-ups. This is the third month of "Books for Good" program. Lucidon tested it in March and April with such success that it's now a regular event.

"We were doing lots of in-store benefits, and re-inventing the wheel each time to put out the word about them," she says. She was trying to streamline the process when she visited Lititz, Pennsylvania. "I went into Aaron's Books and saw their regular program. I thought, 'We could do something like that here.'"

Lucidon sees the program as part of local vitality. "It's a new business model of stores partnering with community organizations to help each other," she said.

Non-profit organizations and programs that "benefit children and families, and that have local interest" are selected to participate.

"What I love about the museum," said Lucidon, "is that it encourages and has respect for a child's joyful and autonomous learning."

The first "Books For Good" in March teamed with a Larchmont teen's participation in Save the Sound, an organization to protect and restore the Long Island Sound.  April featured the Mamaroneck Child Development Center, which provides affordable child-care to low-income families. 

 Lucidon works with the group to create an email invitation list and promote the event. On the appointed day, Lucidon sets up a table where a spokesperson from the group can be present with pertinent materials. She also features books for children and adults related to the group's mission.

May 6^th book selections include Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, by Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan; and Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry), by Lenore Skenazyn.

Groups interested in being considered for participation should email the book store (through the Web site) "explaining the worthiness and need of your organization for consideration."

The Voracious Reader, 1997 Palmer Ave., Larchmont. Open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m.  to  5:30 p.m. 914-630-4581. www.thevoraciousreader.com