Walt Whitman Student Collects 1,000 Books For Hindi's Libraries

HUNTINGTON, NY — Victoria Isernia, a junior at Walt Whitman High School, partnered with Hindi's Libraries once again, the nonprofit told Patch. Isernia held a book drive and collected more than 1,000 books from the South Huntington community.

Hindi's Libraries is an international literacy nonprofit organization based on Long Island. It donates new and gently-used children's books to organizations throughout the world.

Isernia originally learned about the organization through her aunt, Alissa Repetti, early childhood senior specialist at the Child Care Council of Nassau — one of Hindi's Libraries book donation recipients.

Isernia in 2019 collected more than 3,000 books towards Hindi's Libraries.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Hindi's Libraries received book requests from recipients throughout the country who desperately need children's books, as many local libraries closed to the public due to the outbreak. Since May 2020, the organization has shipped more than 150 boxes of children's books to hospitals, foster care agencies, Title 1 schools, little free library stewards serving low-income communities and pediatric clinics.

The organization is currently partnered with several authors outside of New York who are hosting book drives in their state on the organization's behalf. The Hindi's Libraries team has worked to find local recipients for such drives to avoid shipping costs.

Hindi's Libraries is named in honor of Dr. Hindi Krinsky, who died in August 2018 at 32 years old.

To date, Hindi's Libraries has collected more than 125,000 books and partnered with 400 organizations spanning across all 50 states, Israel, India, Africa and Puerto Rico.