A nonprofit group based in Hampden, Massachusetts, is handing out tens of thousands of children’s books each year. The group has no paid staff and even relies on kids to volunteer.
On a recent morning, a group of girls, five to 12 years old, and a teenager arrive ready to go to work in a warehouse with about 30,000 children’s books.
“Hi, come on in!” said Susan Jaye-Kaplan, president of Link to Libraries, greeting the girls. “Hi Nava. Nice to see you! I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Link to Libraries has donated nearly 500,000 books to children in Massachusetts and Connecticut since it started in 2008.
“OK ladies, you are welcome to start your labeling,” said Jaye-Kaplan. “Try to remember not do them on the bar code, but if you do remember there is no right or wrong here at Link to Libraries.”
This isn’t exactly hard labor. Six-year-old Ava Gagnon from Longmeadow is putting stickers on books with the names of the people and groups who donated them. It makes her happy.
“I feel awesome,” she said. “Because I’m helping kids.”
At the other end of the table, 10-year-old Asia Schaeffer from East Longmeadow is bundling bookmarks written in Spanish and English. She loves books.
“They make me feel like I’m like inside the book,” said Schaeffer. “Every kid should have that experience.”
Grants and donations pay for the books. Adults volunteer to read them aloud in classrooms before giving them away — mostly in schools where a majority of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Other books go to kids in homeless shelters, and to new mothers as they leave the hospital.
Susan Jaye-Kaplan says the choice of books reflects the diverse experiences of the kids who get them.
“There are books about Iranians ands Muslims,” said Jaye-Kaplan. “And African Americans and Persians and Caucasians obviously, Asians and Latino, Indian.
She said 60 percent of the children who receive these books have never owned a book before.
Jaye-Kaplan wrapped up the volunteer activity by handing out goldfish crackers, stickers and a free book. She said it’s an investment in future citizens.
“They’re going to be the kind of people that we want in this world,” she said.
And ever the realist, she admitted these young volunteers bring their parents and their businesses. And they may end up donating and volunteering.