Beaverton, OR -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/27/2014 -- Marking Make A Difference Day today, members of Assistance League® of Greater Portland gave 1,918 children’s books to several community organizations serving youth in the local area. Recipients included Children’s Book Bank, Janus Youth Programs, Operation School Bell and Aloha Community Library. Books were collected at schools, recreation centers, a bank and a synagogue. This is the third year in a row that Assistance League has organized a book drive.

Teenage students at Congregation Shaarie Torah collected over 300 books to contribute to the project. Shaarie Torah’s Wednesday Night Students brought the books to Assistance League earlier in the week during their weekly lesson. “Everything we have doesn’t really belong to us,” Rabbi Joshua Rose advised the students. “We are just caretakers trying to do the right thing.” “When you see something that needs to be done, someone who needs help, you should be the one to do that,” added Shaarie Torah’s Education Director Dorice Horenstein who led the synagogue’s book collection. Student Aliyah Blattner agreed wholeheartedly, “You should feel passionate about giving back to the community.”

Assistance League member volunteers sorted and packed the books Saturday morning and delivered them in the afternoon. Megan Chambers, on staff at Children’s Book Bank in Portland pointed out that there is a great discrepancy in the number of books available to children living in poverty. Some neighborhoods have 300 children with 4,500 books available to them and other neighborhoods have 300 children with only one book available. “These kids get just about as excited about getting books as anything else. A book is something exciting, a gift,” Chambers shared.

The book drive is an initiative of Assistance League chapters across the nation. Nationally, in 2012, Assistance League was one of 10 Honorees of the USA WEEKEND Make A Difference Day promotion for the book drives, and in 2013, the organization won the All-Star Award for the book drives, with 103,036 books collected nationally.

About Assistance League
Assistance League® of Greater Portland has served the local community with philanthropic programs since 1965. The organization is celebrating 50 years of community service. Local programs provide new clothing for school children in need, emergency clothing and hygiene kits for victims of assault, life story books for foster children and enrichment activities for troubled youth in a residential treatment facility. Programs are funded through special events, donations, grants and the all volunteer staffed Assistance League Thrift and Consignment Shops at 4000 SW 117th Avenue in Beaverton, OR.