Day 29 - Donate old books.

Knowing today's deed in advance I started looking through boxes for books on Sunday night; I knew during my last move when I was moving back to Miami from up north I had packed a box of just books. As I have mentioned several times in the past, I love to read but not only do I love to read but I also love to collect books. I envision someday having a beautiful book shelf in the living room filled with all types of different books. But the reality is, that day will not be coming for a while and instead these wonderful books have been sitting in a dusty box for over a year. After searching our storage room for nearly an hour I was relieved to finally find the box full of books.

One thing I am not is a hoarder; I am completely in sync with the idea of “out with the old and in with the new”. I make it a point to clean out my closet every couple of months and sometimes even get rid of clothes with tags on them so it wasn't hard for me to part with the books. I know that in the future when I do have this wonderful book shelf I am fortunate enough to purchase new books but someone less fortunate who doesn't have that luxury could really use these books and it would totally make their day when they receive them as a gift.
I went through the books dusting them off and smiling as I thought of the memories of reading them, I then proceeded to place them in a new clean box with a note that read "I hope these books help someone day dream like they did to me and once reading I hope that person decides to pay it forward by giving someone else that day dream as I did".

My initial thought was to give these books to Good Will but then I remembered that Good Will actually would re-sell the books. I wanted people who couldn't afford to purchase books to get these. I started thinking and it wasn't long until I remembered about the orphanage located in Homestead, Florida that I had volunteered at several times with my church in the past, Open House Ministries.

Open House Ministries is an amazing orphanage now known as "God's spot", it provides children and teenagers after school tutor programs, a health clinic for families that cannot afford to see a doctor, social services for families as well as an organization for community development. While volunteering there in the past I have come across amazing children and teenagers of all ages which I knew would love and appreciate these books just as much as I did. I contacted one of the employees at the ministry and set up a time to drop the books off. After work today I headed directly there and met with her to give her the books, while there I greeted a couple of small children who we're beyond thrilled to look into the box to see what books we're in there. Giving them something as simple as old books brought so much happiness to them and touched me beyond belief. I will now make it a point to take old books to the ministries on a normal basis, just so I could see smiles the way I saw them tonight. I really hope this entry encourages you to get some of your very own old books together and take them to an orphanage near you. The reward of giving these books to less fortunate children or adults for that matter will definitely give you an unbelievably good feeling.

If any of you live in the Miami area and would like to donate some old books, toys, clothes, etc. to Open House Ministries you can reach them at (305) 242-1418.♥