Cala Boulware Sykes and her husband Raymond met when they were students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “Throughout our relationship we always did community service work,” Sykes told CNN.
When his family faced discrimination at the local bookstore, he knew this was another opportunity for him to expand Community service work.
In 2021, The couple, who are black, visited a book store in Ocean County, New Jersey, with their son, Truth, now 2 years old. “We took him there because he had hundreds of thousands of books,” Sykes said. “We wanted to give our son the experience of being on a literary playground.”
But in the bookstore, Sykes said, “we weren’t welcome, people were staring at us, whispering,” she said. “We were disappointed, we were a little upset.”
It was “our first indication that we were doing something important that the community needed.”
“It’s a great way to spread love, spread smiles, spread happiness, spread our theme of making reading exciting for people of all ages,” she said.
Sykes said that Hidden Gems has received a total of 40,000 books as donations so far. They receive donations from organizations and individuals, as well as some authors who donate their books. They sell light used books from their storefront in New Brunswick in addition to handing out free books at community events.
“The community support we’ve got from this is really tremendous,” Sykes said. “People from all over the world, as far as Australia, the Netherlands, Ghana, have supported our effort by donating books or sending monetary donations.”
“It’s actually quite amazing, the impact it can literally have on an entire generation if we all come together and get involved,” she said.