BookWORM

Bookwork

The Junior League of Winston-Salem (JLWS) aims to help families gain greater access to books through BookWORM, a drive to collect new and gently used children’s books from its members and the greater community. 

Did you know, 61% of low-income families do not have books in their homes? Research shows that the most successful way to improve reading achievement is to increase access to printed materials. The North Carolina Read to Achieve program, which became effective at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, set a goal to ensure every student read at or above grade level by the end of the third grade. The JLWS believes that helping our community achieve this goal is absolutely critical.

BookWORM works with community partners to distribute donated books to children in our area. Community partners are organizations in the community that receive our books based on our common goal of promoting literacy in our community. Some of our community partners include: Brenner’s Children’s Hospital, Family Services of Forsyth County, Imprints Cares, LEAD Girls of NC, Novant Health First Steps, Read Write Spell, Ronald McDonald House Downtown Health Plaza, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and other organizations that promote early childhood development through access to books.  

We specifically need children’s books for third grade and younger, as well as bilingual books. 

We do not collect: adult books, religious books, encyclopedias, self-help books, romance novels, textbooks, used coloring books

We hold a Fall Member Drive and a Spring Community Drive every year to collect books. Please email bookworm@jlws.org if you would like to donate books outside of our drives. 

2023 BookWORM Fall Drive Quick Facts

  • The BookWORM Fall Drive will run from September 18th through October 31st.
  • All Active (excluding Five Year Actives and Sabbaticals) and Provisional JLWS members are required to participate by donating a minimum of 3 new or 5 used books.
  • Use this form to receive credit for your donation! 

How to Donate

Option 1: Collect a minimum of 3 new or 5 used books – please place books in a bag with a piece of paper containing your name, the number of books you are donating, & whether books are new or used. Fill out this form to document your participation. 

  • Bring them to the GMM on September 18th 
  • Drop-off at Headquarters (Business hours are 9am-2pm Monday-Thursday. Call ahead to make sure someone can let you in: 336-722-9681).

Option 2: Buy books online through wish lists set up by Bookmarks Bookstore, which contain books that our community partners have requested. Make sure to put the name of the community partner in the order comments section! http://www.bookmarksnc.org/bookworm-wish-lists

Forward your order confirmation to bookworm@jlws.org and fill out this form to document your participation. 

Steps to order through Bookmarks:

Before you can complete a purchase on the Bookmarks site, you must create a free account. This is a one-time process; you can use the same account for future purchases and personal wish lists.  It will save you time during the checkout process if you create your free account before you start shopping.

To create an account, click on My Account from the blue menu at the top of the page. Click on the Create New Account tab under User Account, create a username and enter your email address. You will receive an automated email from Bookmarks with instructions on creating your password.

To shop from wish lists, start here: http://www.bookmarksnc.org/bookworm-wish-lists. Scroll down to the Junior League BookWORM section and click on the name of a Community Partner to view their wish list. Buy items from the wish lists by clicking on Add to cart next to the items you want to purchase.  Please note: at this point you should be able to add titles to your cart without being logged in, but if you receive an error or do not see the Add to cart button, please try logging into My Account with the free account you created.

When you finish shopping and are ready to check out, click on the Checkout button under the list of items in your shopping cart (main part of page) or from the Shopping Cart on the right side of the page. If you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to log in now.  Review the list of items then click through each of the checkout boxes to review your customer options and enter payment information.

Make sure to choose Curbside pickup and if required to include delivery information there should be an auto populated option for “Junior League BookWORM Donation” with our office’s address. Please include the name of the Community Partner you are shopping for in your order comments, and your order will go directly to the partner of your choosing. You do not need to pick up or ship your items – Bookmarks will handle this.

If you have any questions about using the Bookmarks website, please contact Bookmarks at info@bookmarksnc.org.

Option 3: Buy books online through our Amazon wish list. If you purchase off the Amazon list, have your books shipped to the address provided on the wish list (Ondra Walker). Do not ship your books to HQ! They will get sent back if no one is at the office to accept the package.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/8GPU3CNRBSNI?ref=cm_sw_em_r_un_un_LHR3RzvbXeka4

Forward your order confirmation to bookworm@jlws.org and fill out this form to document your participation. 

Need more options? Email Ondra at bookworm@jlws.org