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The Bridge of Books Foundation is based in Atlantic Highlands. They donated 1600 books to the backpack giveaway at the Boys and Girls Club of Newark. It was sponsored by News 12 Optimum and Warner Brothers. Discovery Abby Daley is the founder and executive director. They have a big fundraiser coming up this fall. She talks about a T shirt celebrating a milestone last year, last year. In honor of our 20th anniversary, we held our very first five K ever and Thompson Park in Lincroft and we were thrilled to have author and illustrator, Mike Cello, uh did, did the logo for us, which I can't even say how much I love that logo and it will be on it. T shirts are running T shirts from now until whenever this race ends. Um So that's been a, an exciting uh addition to our fundraising um and our uh five K is scheduled for October 27th of this year in Thompson Park. And we're really looking forward to it. You find a lot of pageant young ladies are getting involved with your calls. Like actually, it's been, it's been a delight to add into uh our platform and it adds part of our exposure to have these young ladies come in and talk about us and share our events over their social media and um bring exposure to what we're doing. Omma. Go ahead and tell us what this means to you to get involved. Well, when I first started as Miss New Jersey Teen USA, I had done a lot of work in children's education in India and I wanted to bring that back to my home of New Jersey. So when I got the title, I reached out to Abby and I was like, I really wanna work with you. I love what you're doing. And she was like, ok, when are you free? And then ever since then it's been like almost two years of us, like working together and it's never going to stop. You can't get rid of me. Um And I think what it means to me is I've been able to see first hand when Abby or I, one of the volunteers gives a child their first book and their face just lights up. It's an experience like no other coming up next at noon, Abby's second volunteer, Leah talks about her reason for being active with this foundation.

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Right now, I am talking with Leah Herndon who is Miss New Jersey Earth USA as you can see by her Sash Year. Tell me why you decided to get involved with this cause here. Yeah. So I think it's important for Children to enrich their minds with books. Honestly, we're so consumed with our screens and technology that it takes away from learning physically. So um I just want to come out and help the community and this is my first event as Miss New Jersey Earth. What has this title meant to you? It's the first time I've heard of it. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Uh This title means a lot to me because they really have an emphasis on sustainability, environmental friendliness and mental health. So it's important for me to spread the message that it's OK to have feelings that you can get out there. Use your passions for good and help the earth while you're doing it, help the Earth while you're doing it. Why is that special to you? And what exactly is your platform? Yeah. So it's special to me just because I love the Earth. Earth Day was actually my favorite holiday growing up randomly. I love that. Um But for me, my platform is I have to intrinsic link. It's a platform where I teach about holistic healing and using the environment um to get outside, go on hikes, do yoga meditate. And if we can heal our inner selves and we can heal the world around us. And then also I have a personal project that I'm working on car called The Heartbeat of Heals. It's um a project where I work on um where I film and interview different people in my community that are making a difference. And I love that title, The Heartbeat Of Heroes. Where did that come from? Well, I'm actually from Buffalo, New York and we had a mass shooting a few years ago at tops and I was inspired to create something that highlighted the good happening in my community. So there's heroes but wherever you go. And so I wanted to showcase them.

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The former Miss Teen USA 2023 is working with a nonprofit in Atlantic Highlands that she really enjoys. UMA Sophia Shrivastava resigned her title with the organization in May. Now she volunteers with Bridges of Books, founded by Abby Daley. UMA Sophia also has a new book out called The White Jaguar. I think I was a very different type of pageant girl. I hadn't grown up doing it. So I was very new to this whole world. And one thing that has really stayed true to who I am even before I started doing pageants is I really value giving back, especially when you're in a position that you can give back to your community. You have time, you have resources. It's so important that we, we fill other people's cups. And so that's what Abby has done for me. I think not only through volunteering with Bridget books and you know, getting kids who live in inner cities access to books, I actually wrote and illustrated my own book, The White Jaguar. And when with Abby, she's been able to donate so many copies of that to books, child, I mean, libraries, children's centers, um daycare centers and we've kind of traveled around New Jersey doing that. So as an author myself, seeing the impact that Abby has and has she has helped me like spread the impact of the white jaguar in my book. It is truly such an incredible journey. Why do you think it's so important for people not to fear that stigma of being in touch with who they are and their mental health? Well, so I grew up um in a community that not always accepted my background, I'm half Mexican, half Indian and it was quite a different combination growing up. You didn't see a lot of people like me. And so with the white jaguar, I wanted to show kids that it's OK to embrace what makes you different. It's actually your superpower and no matter what title you have, no matter what place in your life you are, you still are your own person and you have your own values. So if you don't have a fancy title, you could still do the things that you're passionate about and that matter to you because it's important the kindness that you give to others, not how things reflect back on you. Words. Indeed. Wouldn't you say wise words? Definitely. Indeed.

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Abby Daley is the founder and executive director of Bridge of books based in Atlantic Highlands. Where do you send your books? And what kind of community help are you looking for? Uh We send our books, we like to say, we will send books anywhere and everywhere we can find Children who need them. Uh Over the years, we have talked our way into a lot of different places that might not start out thinking that books for kids would be a good fit. Um you know, food banks, the prison systems, uh community visiting home, visiting programs. Uh and of course schools and we are always honing the types of books that we send out to kids because we want everybody to see themselves in books much like UMA said, it's important to see yourselves and to identify with books and whether it's just to learn to read, to enjoy a story, to escape from something that's happening, to inspire yourself. And not just have access to books today, but tomorrow, the following day, the next year and the year after that, kids need books all year long, that's what we will do. Uh We will donate books uh to agencies. We've been in some schools for 20 years, kids who aren't reading on grade level, we will hand pick donations for those kids. Uh You know, if somebody particularly loves a book or a series, we have been known to purchase that. Uh, we recently had a high school, um, started a, like a book club or a book giveaway during Pride Month. And they asked us if we had some pride books to donate. And of course, you know, we sent them a donation and the feedback we got was that there were high school kids who like we're over the moon because they found books that they could identify with and that meant something to them. And that's what Bridget books is about. Like, that's why we do this, like connecting with kids and giving them the ability to see themselves.

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News 12’s Della Crews spoke to Abby Daly, the founder and executive director of the Atlantic Highlands-based foundation.

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