Some may say that books are a thing of the past, but at COVER, books are building community.
COVER has been fostering hope and building community for 25 years by bringing together volunteers and trained staff to complete urgent home repairs for low-income homeowners in the Upper Valley. COVER also operates a reuse store in downtown White River Junction that resells building materials and household goods at affordable prices, to help fund its home repair program.
Cover to COVER Books is COVER’s newest enterprise at 158 South Main Street in downtown White River Junction and will open its doors on Friday, December 1. Cover to COVER Books will accept and sell quality used and new books in a neighborhood that lacks a bookstore and town library.
More importantly, the bookstore will further COVER’s mission of “fostering hope and building community.” Although COVER’s home repair program is known for building and repairing ramps, porches and roofs, COVER’s mission is to foster hope and build community by strengthening community ties – between strangers who may meet on a repair jobsite or in the COVER store, and now at Cover to COVER Books. A bookstore can be an inviting space (books don’t judge!) where folks can linger without feeling rushed out the door. Everyone will be welcome regardless of their age, income or how they look to browse through a curated collection of books and perhaps find a book or two to take home.
Cover to COVER Books will be run primarily through volunteers who are devoted to books, different forms of literature and how reading can expand one’s world. Our volunteers are community members who perhaps were not able to or interested in volunteering on a home repair site, but found a sense of community through volunteering at Cover to COVER Books. If you would like to join this community of volunteers, qualifying and sorting donations or staffing the bookstore, please email Jen Roby at jen@coverhomerepair.org or visit https://coverhomerepair.org/volunteer/.
A Cover to COVER Books volunteer, Peter Money, who is also a publisher and library director shares: “Personally, volunteering at Cover to COVER Books offers a chance to be with my community in a way that is mutually supportive. Every village should have at least one used-book store, in my estimation…. I feel good about putting the best books we can find on the shelf for just the right reader. We know there’s going to be something for everyone to uncover at COVER!”
Ribbon cutting: Friday, December 1, at 11:00, at Cover to COVER Books, 158 South Main Street, White River Junction.
Media contact: Helen Hong at director@coverhomerepair.org or 802-296-7241 ext 5.
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