10th Annual Community Book Drive
Collecting books August 1 – September 14, 2021
For All Ages! (Especially Children)
The Community Book Drive is a partnership of the United Way of Washington County, Hagerstown Area Religious Council (HARC), the Judy Center, Hagerstown Rotary Club, and the Early Childhood Advisory Council. Over its nine year history, the Community Book Drive has collected and distributed more than 113,000 books for children’s literacy efforts.
More than 13,000 books were collected in 2021 and used through the Community Book Warehouse, which distributes them to community organizations, schools, families and individuals to get them into the hands of vulnerable children. The Book Drive was not held in 2022 while we worked on getting the Community Book Drive opened more regularly post-pandemic, so we are looking forward to an even better collection this year! This year the Community Book Drive will again distribute children’s books for early childhood literacy efforts and the United Way will distribute books for all other ages through the Books United program.
Everyone can collect books! Work with your house of worship, civic group, business, and other organizations to collect new or gently used books (please no text books or encyclopedias). If you’re purchasing new books and want suggestions, a list of Recommended Books is below. If you want to support the effort without donating books, donations of funds to purchase books are gratefully accepted and will be used to purchase new books at about half the retail cost, so your funds will go twice as far! To donate financially, you can:
- Mail a check to HARC, P.O. Box 1158, Hagerstown, MD 21741-1158
- Use our online donation form and mark “book drive” in the designation field.
Posters/flyers for collection sites and distribution coming soon!:
About Community Book Drive
Collection Sites flyer
Recommended Books
Drop Here 8 x 11
Drop Here 11 x 17
Top 10 11 x 17
Top 10 Revision 8 x 10
In addition to the “Recommended Books,” we also suggest books that reflect diversity as those are greatly needed
If your group would like to collect books for the book drive, please contact Terri Gwizdala at gwizzy2000@gmail.com or Kathy Powderly at director@harccoalition.org or 301-842-4272.
Books will be collected at the following participating locations
Collection sites accepting public drop-offs:
Christ’s Reformed Church & HARC office
130 W. Franklin St., Hagerstown. M-F 9-3
First Christian Church
1345 Potomac Ave, Hagerstown. M-F 9-12. Books will be in the lobby by the security desk.
Mulberry Lofts
22 N. Mulberry Street in the Lobby during business hours.
Collection sites with internal collections only (no drop-offs, please):
Unity of Hagerstown
Books will be picked up from participating collection sites September 14-20 by volunteer drivers. Books will be sorted and counted on the United Way Day of Caring, Thursday, September 21 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hagerstown. Collected books will be distributed throughout the community to vulnerable children and early childhood literacy programs by way of the Community Book Warehouse.
