EDISON — For 13-year-old Aditya Shelke, the announcement that Amazon was donating 75 Kindles and an Echo to the Edison Public Library, brought excitement.
“It’s cool that we can now explore more technology rather than the physical book in your hand,” he said, adding that now that school’s out for the summer, he will be coming to the library more often.
Amazon representatives joined officials in Edison and Woodbridge Townships on July 6 to celebrated summer reading programs.
And as part of the celebration, they announced the donation of 300 Kindles with a dollar value of $30,000 distributed among four communities — Edison, Woodbridge, Carteret and Florence Township, Burlington County.
The representatives first stopped at the Woodbridge Main Library and kicked off their summer reading program with student readers, Mayor John McCormac and Woodbridge Library Director Monica Eppinger.
Carteret Library Director Joseph Norris was present at the Woodbridge event.
The Amazon representatives then stopped at the Edison Main Library where they met with Mayor Thomas Lankey, Edison Library Director Judith Mansbach, Joyce Ship-Freeman, president of the Edison Library Board of Trustees, Vasant Naik, board secretary of the Library Board, Deepak Belani, Edison Committeeman for District 70 and others.
Mansbach said their current library system does not have any Kindles and explained that the Kindles will be utilized in their summer reading programs for children, teens and adults that began in June. The township has three libraries.
The library will also be raffling off Amazon Kindles, Mansbach said.
Ship-Freeman said the donation of the Amazon Kindles means a lot to the encouragement of reading and to the library.
Naik said they hope the donation of the Kindles will bring the children to the library and promote the love of reading.
With a library of digital content, users of the donated Kindles will be able to explore beyond their summer reading list.
“We have challenged the kids to read two more books than what they need,” said Anne Laughlin, spokesperson for Amazon, adding that the donation is in hopes to boost literacy over the summer.
Laughlin said they are very engaged in their local communities and are big on giving back to those communities.
“This is part of our DNA,” she said. “We are a giving back organization.”
Laughlin said Amazon is represented in each of the communities they have made donations to.
A 900,000 square foot Amazon fulfillment center at 2170 Route 27 near Vineyard Road is expected to be open by the end of the year in Edison bringing 1,000 employment opportunities, Laughlin said.
In April, Amazon opened its largest fulfillment center in Carteret. The fullfillment center is the second center in Carteret, which had opened its’ first center in 2014.
Also in 2014, an Amazon fulfillment center opened in Florence Township and in 2013, an Amazon fullfillment center opened in Woodbridge.
Along with the Amazon Kindles, Laughlin said the company donated Amazon Echoes to the libraries and the mayors’ offices.