Episode 6: The Children’s Book Project

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Emily Maksymiuk, Managing Director, Board President Risa, Schwartz and Board Member Maureen McCarthy of the Children’s Book Project

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host.

Series Introduction: This episode is part of a series of interviews we conducted through our participation in the Bay Area Video Coalition’s TV Show titled San Francisco Nonprofits Spotlight. The interviews were conducted via Zoom from April to June 2020 during the height of the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Shelter in Place requirements. The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the pandemic. 

Show Guest Risa: And we know that when children have books at the homeless shelters who take them, when they have them in the schools and school libraries and classroom libraries, when teachers who have a low budget can afford to fill those classrooms, It makes an enormous difference. And we know that because we get. Beautiful letters where my staff weeps from the children, but also from teachers and the teachers tell us sometimes when they give children books, it's the first book in the home.

Episode Intro – Show Host George: In this episode we feature the voices of Emily Maksymiuk the Managing Director along with Board Members Risa Schwartz and Maureen McCarthy of the Children’s Book Project. Over the last 28 years The Children's Book Project has given away free books for children who need them. Additionally, all those who serve children and need books such as teachers, public-health workers, childcare providers, homeless shelter staff, and parents from all over the Bay Area can select an unlimited number of free books. Some of the books are donated by publishers, authors, and booksellers. However almost all of the books that are in high demand such as picture books, early readers, books in Spanish must be bought new.

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Emily Maksymiuk, the Managing Director of the Children's Book Project, along with board president, Risa Schwartz and board member, Maureen McCarthy. Thanks for being here. Emily, Risa and Maureen. I'd like to start with Risa, just provide, for the audience, a little bit of history on why the Children's Book Project was created.

Show Guest Risa: Thank you. In 1992, the founder of the children's book, project, Vicky Pollock, who was a reading specialist, noticed that the children in her schools did not have books. They didn't have books in the classroom, and they didn't have books at home. And she was very conversant with studies that show the more words a child hears and is read to, the better they achieve in school and in life.

And she was conversant with studies that showed if there's a literacy issue, children end up in the juvenile delinquency system and in prison later in life. The life outcomes were not a success, if children did not have books and books read to them at home or available to them in school. She did not have a lot of funds, and so she found a way to locate books without children and give them to children without books.

And so she started collecting, gently used books, and giving them to people she knew who were educators in the San Francisco Unified School District, and then opened it up to all educators or people serving children who need books and families who can't afford books. And so public health clinics, physicians began to come to her site, and she made everything free. And that's how it began. And she started writing grants in order to buy a very small percentage of the books that did not get donated. But for the most part, books were donated, and then clients came to the book site and selected them. And hundreds of thousands of books went out every year and it's been 28 years.

George: Thank you. So, Maureen, I'm want to turn to you and, ask how has the COVID-19 epidemic impacted, The Children's Book Project in, your normal distribution of having educators come to your book site, to self-select, books? 

Show Guest Maureen: Well, it's really been difficult because we would have people come three days a week and every first Saturday and we would tell them as many books as you can carry out, you can take. And so, when we had to shut down, we had to be creative and we have an amazing book site manager and her assistant who went and picked up books from people that they could pick up books from and box them up and took them to shelters, took them to school sites, we became a mobile force and you know, instead of having people come to us, Kathleen and Alexander took books to different sites and they took them to the park and rec sites where essential workers, children were being cared for.  

So, they could have books to read. They took them to the food giveaways to the school. They took them to the laptop giveaways at the school, anywhere where there was children and families that needed books, they made themselves available. And, that's how we've given away so many books in such a short period of time, which means that, of course we need more books. It was an amazing turnaround to address the emergency that came up. And, they've been awesome in getting those books out to people, and teachers are emailing and saying, is there any way I could get some books from you? And I think that's what I miss the most is them coming in and getting the books. 

George: So now that you guys have, you know, figured out a way to distribute books Emily, can you talk a little bit about, the afterschool network and your community of partners and the sites that you've delivered books to? And what I found interesting, on your website was it's not just San Francisco based. 

Show Guest Emily: Yeah, thank you. And so, as Maureen was talking, she mentioned that we've worked with all sorts of different forms of distributing out books to get the kids who need them. With kids being out of school, they're not having the same sort of access to reading rich environments. They don't have the books in home. And so, because we are based in a decommissioned school building. We don't have it set up so that way kids come to get books from us typically. And so now we're relying on our educators to be the point people that we're bringing books to, and then they're distributing them out to the different kids.

And so that's why we're working with a variety of organizations like SFUSD. We've gotten them 8,000 books to distribute out in their laptop distribution. And distance learning packets to children in pre-K through second grade. We've been working with food banks and homeless shelters, different organizations that are serving our most vulnerable populations to ensure that they're making sure that the children that they serve have access to books.

George: Risa, you've been with the organization for decades. I would love to have you share with the audience, what do you feel like has been the biggest impact that, The Book Project has made in our community over the years?  

Risa: Thanks. I have not actually been with the organization for decades, although some of our board members have, and interestingly enough, they've been involved in it as clients.

So, we have a physician with the department of public health who's on the board, and she was a client for over two decades. She worked at a public health clinic on silver Avenue and once every two weeks or so, she would go down to the book site on Napoleon Avenue and collect books that were appropriate for her constituency, Spanish speaking children.

People would come with their kids for a well child check, but they couldn't afford babysitters. So, they'd bring all the cousins and our nonprofit is unusual in that we will give as many books as people need unlimited free to keep. And so, she set up a, book shelf and a stash in her office and, gave away books for years. And then she hauled me into the project about six years ago, when the landlord tripled the rent. And, the founder was considering retiring because of illness in the family. And a group of us had a kitchen table meeting and someone said, I know someone at the San Francisco Unified School District. 

Maybe they'll give us a space. And so, within the space of a few weeks, we threw a retirement party. Got it. A space about five and a half years ago, in this decommission school, in the outer sunset. And from that time. And before in the 28 years of the project's history, we are on the cusp of giving away our 3 millionth book. And we know that when children have books at the homeless shelters who take them, when they have them in the schools and school libraries and classroom libraries, when teachers who have a low budget can afford to fill those classrooms, it makes an enormous difference. And we know that because we get. 

Beautiful letters where my staff weeps from the children, but also from teachers and the teachers tell us sometimes when they give children books, it's the first book in the home. And that speaks to the incredible economic disparity in our very wealthy city and the surrounding environments. There are families who really cannot afford books and we are filling their homes with books. And it's, an enormous impact. And I would mention, we have a separate little program within the project that not only gives books, but we teach best practices in reading aloud to children. Parents reading aloud, and we have a special income stream to buy very special books for that purpose for parents who may not even be English speakers or literate buying books with faces that they can read to their kids. And it makes an enormous difference. Organizations join that program, and then they serve hundreds of thousands of families. So, our reach has been, incredible, and we also never turn anyone away.

So, it started in San Francisco and it expanded, to the greater Bay Area we serve up to, Marin down to San Mateo. But when people have driven, hours from Tracy, Modesto, San Jose, uh, Turlock, and they arrive about half an hour before we're closing, we let them in, they stay late and they know to bring rolling suitcases and they take away as many books, all free all for the educators. Or the organization serving kids or the children to keep and to own. And, the site, you know, one day after the pandemic, maybe you'll come to the site and see the beautiful cards from teachers. And from children’s saying, thank you. I love this book. And do you have another one about dinosaurs? 

George: Thank you. So, Maureen, could you share with the audience, one of your favorite stories? you've been with the organization a while as well, so teacher, child?

Maureen: I think the thing that happens over and over again is, on Wednesdays. And the first Saturday, I always am at the book site and helping to do a variety of things. But one of my favorite things to do is help teachers and community people pick out books to take with them. And for people who come for the first time, they're like kids in a toy store, like. Wow. And I can, and they're free and I can, I can take as many as I want. The joy is just, they're just amazed that somebody is giving them something for their classroom. 

So many teachers come in and say, you know, I'm a new teacher. There were no books in my classroom when I got to my classroom and I can't afford to buy them. This is such a gift. Thank you so much. And so, then it's really fun. we get to help them pick out books. What are you looking for? We have awesome volunteers, some retired teachers that say, okay, what grade level? Let me help you find the books and to watch people walk out. Wow. I got all these books. My kids are going to be so excited when you know, school is not one school gets back in session, but the joy is just immeasurable. There's no way to really quantify how rewarding it is to see somebody who works so hard at what they do. 

And be able to take these books with them, to give to their kids. It's all about their students and how creative they are and what they're looking for. And then the community groups are awesome. There's a community group that works ah jail ministry that takes books to the jail for the parents to read into a tape recorder that is then given to the children with the book so they can hear their parents read them a book. And those people are amazing too. It's an amazing place to be in. And I wish more people knew about it.  

Risa: There's no crying in baseball, but maybe there's crying in children's literacy. I'll tell you another story that, Kathleen, Wydeler our site manager. Told me, you know, we get 150,000 or so books donated to us a year and every single one of them has to be touched by our volunteers or staff to count them. 

And then to sort them into these 78 categories so that when a teacher or anyone comes in and wants a level book, which is the school district or school term for. Yeah, more than a grade level, but very specific or they want to book on dinosaurs, or they want a book on science. My staff and the volunteers have touched every single book and recently, a teacher walked in and said there was a very withdrawn, troubled kid with an unusual name and Kathleen went into the back room where she keeps special stuff for people. If they have a special request or even if they just tell her a story. And there was a book with the child's name and the title, and the teacher burst into tears and said, this is going to change him. This is going to open him up and open the door. That's why, what we do, it's a little bit of mother's milk, right?  

George: Thank you. Wonderful stories. So, Emily and, Risa, how can people get involved?  What are the things that you guys need at this point?  

Emily: Okay, well, I'll take the first bit, for our most immediate pressing need, we're still getting out about 12,000 books, just since the shutdown. That's more than we typically get out in a month with our book site I open, and these books are going again to organizations that are serving kids. I'm going to add in one more story that I just recently heard about, a middle school social worker who had a student. Who just moved to San Francisco right before the shutdown and their family is in a shelter. 

They don't have access to internet. She loves reading and she doesn't have any friends here yet. And this is her first experience of San Francisco. And we were able to get her 14, 15 books that she really loved, that she's able to escape into and find herself in and feel good. And so just like the stories that Maureen and Risa mentioned, its these tiny moments that we're reaching kids and helping them learn and discover and become better versions of themselves, not just for literacy attainment, but also as they build character. And so that's one of the reasons we need the books right now is most of the time we're dependent on book drives from Girl Scouts and Eagle Scouts. 

There are bins all across the city where people donate their gently used well-loved books for us to then take in and organize and sort, and we're not getting those books in right now, but we're still getting those books out. So, we are in desperate need of picture books, early readers and books in Spanish in particular, because we need to have books in the languages that. We're serving. We also really need books that have inclusive themes and diverse characters to represent the children that are reading them. We have a wish list curated now on bookshop.org, which is for independent bookstores and shares proceeds and you have the links for that. Beyond that, we also just need funds in general for longer term goals. And I'll let Risa speak to that.

Risa: So, our, two biggest needs are a new space and funding, to run the project and for books. And the space issue is paramount. The school district about five and a half years ago gave us a free space in this decommission school, but it's being torn down, for a much-needed affordable housing, for educators and teachers project. So, we have no space after February 2021. And we have met several times with the school district, but right now they don't have anything in mind for us. So, we have a 28-year-old project where we receive normally 150,000 books donated to us the books without children, without even having to strain to get those books because people know of us were sort of a San Francisco Bay Area institution. 

And that will all disappear if we don't find another space. So, if people, know of spaces within a city organization, maybe there is something free within the San Francisco Unified School District. Maybe they know property managers or landlords who can donate a space or have a modest rent that a very shoestring nonprofit that amazingly gives away one point nine million dollars’ worth of books to schools and other organizations serving kids every year. If they can find us a space, we need 2000 square feet at a minimum. We'll take a much larger space because we're prepared to expand. We need either an elevator, because books are heavy. Remember 150,000 come in every year, or a ground floor uh, with a ramp, and we need some modest amount of parking because people are rolling away, those heavy suitcases, or sometimes taking away the books, the unlimited books in boxes. 

We need, funding just simply to run the project and funding. Um, at this time of COVID because those hundred 150,000 books that generally pour, can't because of shelter in place. And so, we need to purchase books.  In particular we need, Spanish language books. We need early readers, board books, and picture books. We also need to increase our pool of funders. There's a whole world of foundations out there. That are opaque, meaning grant applications by invitation only if there are people out there who know of foundations and can contact them and say, this is a wonderful organization doing serious work with changing people's lives, with improving their access to books and to literacy and making them, you know, successful members of society. 

Have them introduce us to those foundations so that we can apply. And those are our needs and also go to our website or our Go Fund Me and you can donate modest sums if you don't know of foundations to refer us to, or sites to give us. And that's basically what we need.  

George: Well, I want to thank you, Emily, and, Risa and Maureen for sharing all about The Children's Book, Project and your work today. We'll make sure that the viewers have your contact information, website, social media, so people can follow The, Children's Book Project and get engaged and please stay safe and healthy out there as we all work our way through this new normal. So, thank you so much.  

Risa: Thank you

Maureen: Thank you

Emily:  Thank you 

Episode Outro-Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voices of Emily Maksymiuk the Managing Director along with Board Members Risa Schwartz and Maureen McCarthy of the Children’s Book Project.  Since the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, the Children’s Book Project has been operating almost entirely on cash donations. Its sources for books have dried up. At the same time, school and daycare closures created a greater urgency for home libraries that are out of reach for low-income children. Studies have shown that children who have fewer than 20 books at home perform at least three years behind in school, compared with children with more volumes. The Children’s Book Project is dependent on donations of funds from individuals as well as institutions. For more information about the Children’s Book Project please visit www.childrensbookproject.org  

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoyed the insights, points of view and personal stories from the voices of change makers and their nonprofits featured in the series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofit and staff members, featured in this episode please go to my web site georgekoster.com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to this episode. Please consider a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada as well as the wonderful team at Bay Area Video Coalition. Go to www.bavc.org to find out more about Bay Area Video Coalition’s services. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to georgekoster.com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows like this. Please rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and share this story with your friends. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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