MCS Community Supports Project Cicero

Project Cicero collects new and gently used books for children and young adults through book drives run by 100+ New York City independent, public and parochial schools.

Collected books are transported to the distribution site where hundreds of student, parent and teacher volunteers unpack, sort, and display the books. Teachers from under-resourced NYC public schools pre-register online to attend the annual distribution and take for free as many books as they can transport back to their respective classrooms/libraries.

Since its founding in 2001, Project Cicero has distributed for free over 4,000,000 books to over 1,000,000 public school students in all five boroughs of New York City, according to its website.

This year, Manhattan Country School sent nine large boxes full of books to Project Cicero as part of its drive. Our families are involved with the effort at all levels, said Michelle, one of our Parent Association co-presidents.

The Project Cicero drive at MCS was organized by our Parent Association and supported by our parent Library Committee.

“We have some parents who have volunteered at the main Project Cicero sorting event, and we have some parents who are New York City public school teachers who have benefited from this event and go each year and get books for their classrooms,” Michelle said. “It's a noble project to support reading and support books in classrooms across New York City.”