An Interview with our Founder

I wanted to start Pages With Purpose because I absolutely loved books as a kid. I was the kind of person who could not put them down! My favorites were fiction, especially because I loved how unique it was to be able to go to another world that was only possible in your head. It's very important to me that other people get to experience that as well. I think in this digital age it's very easy for attention spans to get shorter, or there's just less need to go to an actual library or use actual books. So it's not as common to find kids reading books when there are so many other forms of entertainment. But they provide such a unique form of entertainment that I wanted to make sure the next generation still got that ability to experience that regardless of their income, or income inequality as an effect.

As the founder of Book Club at my school, books are something you'll see in my life quite frequently. So I chose books because I feel that they provide valuable information in a way that so many other things can't. It leaves a lot up to the imagination in the way things are described. It really grows an individual's creativity and can inspire so many other movements, so many other things. I also think you put so much information and so much detail into a full-sized book that will take way more time than something like a movie or a show. Oftentimes, you'll see when there's a book-to-movie adaptation, they lose a lot of information. So I think that alone stresses just how important it is to have books as a feature. 

Title 1 schools have a higher population of students who are lower-income. These schools are designated to receive government funding to ensure the students receive everything they need to have a good learning environment. We felt that those schools deserved the books the most and were most accessible for us to get to at a high school level. That was our best way of designating who was deserving of the books, and who would be excited to take them in.

A lot of the kids who worked with us on the initiative and worked with us on wrapping the books, talked about how much fun it was. Our first event was planned for the winter holidays, so we played Christmas music, we all had stations, they were able to work with their friends, things like that.  I think it's a very common misconception that service can't be fun, that it has to be hard work and only done because it's required. But I think I think service should be fun. You should get to enjoy what you're doing. You should enjoy being a better person and making your community a better community for others. And I think a lot of times the fun kind of gets lost in the sense of duty. But there are so many different kinds of service... there are so many different ways that you can add to your community. So I really want to foster that belief in people that if a certain type of service doesn't entice you or you don't think it's fun, find one that does.  That's one of my favorite parts about this organization is that so many people started to look at service a different way.

I feel like books in themselves are great, but to have fully wrapped books makes it that much more exciting for the kids. Because it's something to open up! It's fully wrapped! It's easier for parents as well. They don't have to go out and get wrapping paper, they don't have to go out and do really any of it if they don't have the time, the money, or the resources. They're already set. 

It also looks and feels better. By wrapping the books we're able to take to take in more used books that may not be in perfect condition but they're still nice books.  It feels like a proper present rather than something you're getting secondhand.

All of our tasks require different levels of mobility. The really nice thing is each of our tasks are so different that regardless of what you're interested in or good at, you're able to do most if not all of the tasks. There are some heavy lifting parts, but that's really just in loading and unloading the books, transporting the books to the schools, things like that. But aside from that there really isn't any heavy lifting. 

We set the system up with a lot of different stations. So if you're better at art, maybe we put you at the ribbon curling table or creating little note cards. If you're better at doing a  singular task on repeat, maybe we set you on the table that wraps the books, or tapes up the book covers to keep them in good condition.

We have a special system designed so that when we give the books to the schools, we put a sticky note on the wrapping paper so it can easily be taken off without damaging the wrapping paper. The sticky note simply lists the title, the author, the genre, the recommended age group... relevant information like that. So if a school wants to sort their books by genre, they can do that. If they want to sort by age group, they can do that. Or for schools that have a set of content standards they follow, they can choose to find a different home for books that don't meet that. So it makes it really nice and easy for them to verify the books that they're giving out, as well as organize them however they feel is best for their facility.

The biggest component of this is honestly the end results. In seeing this expand, it doesn't matter so much to me how it is organized, how it's set up. It matters much more to me that the kids are still receiving the benefits. 

I got emails in response from some of the schools talking about how even if some of the kids weren't readers themselves, they got books for their siblings. They were so so excited to be able to get a gift like that for their siblings... something that was at no cost to them, and they could gift to someone else. So I think not only does it inspire creativity and kind of light up the next generation, it also inspires a sense of charity in them as well. It was really cool just to see how excited they were. 

The schools reported how many books they would like to be delivered, and they got first pick. Any books that we had left over we took to reputable local children's charities, so they still ended up in the hands of children.

We sent a short email out to all of our local Title 1 schools. Some schools unfortunately, we did not get responses from. But for the schools that we did get responses from, we were grateful to partner with them. We have included an email template in our Starter Kit as well, just in case anyone wants to do this in their own community. 

Once they'd shown interest, we asked them for their numbers. What grades are they looking for, what kind of age groups or genres, and so on. Most schools provided us with a general set of numbers and the grades they would be going to. We set those aside and made sure to send them to that school. 

Because we were a smaller group, it was easier for us to deliver them personally, so we had people who lived in the areas of those schools drop them off. Each school had a different method of how they wanted them to be distributed to the students, so we worked with the schools individually to make that process easier. Once they had the books, they could hand them out however they preferred. Even if they want to give them to the parents instead of the students, we have little gift tags tied onto the outer packaging of the book, so that parents can write a little note on there to make it more personal. That's why we set up our system the way we did... so that we can custom-tailor an experience that fits best for each school's vision. 

When we receive the book, we go through to make sure it's in good condition, so when we send it out to a kid it will be appreciated. Then we write down the title, the author,  the genre (or two, to more fully-encompass the book), and the recommended age group. Sometimes it takes some googling, but honestly even looking at the pages to see what the reading levels are works as well. At the end we'll note any marks that need to be covered up... maybe there's a pen mark in there or something that can't be erased... we make sure to write that down in that column so that the next group knows what to do with it. 

Then we bring the books in for all the other groups to process. The first station takes care of any marks or blemishes. So if there's a price tag on there, if there's something on there that can't easily be removed or erased, they're going to cover that with white labels or Sharpie, depending on the issue. They'll also be responsible for taping the book covers. Sometimes the covers of paperbacks are getting a little bent, and some packaging tape helps keep it durable while still looking nice.

Then we pass that on to the next group. They take out a sticky note and they write down the title, the author, the genre, and the recommended age group, and they stick that on the book. The next group wraps the books and tapes them up with the sticky note on the outside. The following group ties a ribbon around it and curls the ends, and the group after that cuts out and ties a little gift tag to the ribbon. The books get stacked so we can divvy them out for the different schools. 

It's very much assembly line style, which affords such easy mobility and such easy communication between groups and between peers. You only have to teach people one job, which is oftentimes very helpful. And then they can find what suits them best, or switch around stations if they're getting a little bored. It works well for a large group of people.

I think one of the more difficult things was honestly finding space to store all the wrapped books. We didn't think that through very well! In addition, because I was the only person reading and categorizing all the books at the beginning, it was fairly time consuming. It's a job that should be spread out to make things a little easier. 

No, not at all. Especially because our books go all the way down to zero months. So a lot of those books are going to be shorter. Having a minimum number of pages really isn't accessible. So for that reason, we don't have a minimum page range or a maximum page range, but page amounts are definitely one of the qualifiers we marked down in our list.

The best way to keep my team motivated was honestly keeping the vibes up. Our first time doing this was near the winter holidays, so we played holiday music the whole time. They got to work with their friends... we tried to avoid separating friend groups as much as possible. When you're working with your friends, time passes like it's nothing. So we definitely made sure to put them in groups where they could work with each other and talk while doing their individual jobs.

St. Viator high school provided us with funding so that we could get supplies like wrapping paper, tape, and ribbon. If you don't have a funding donor, the easiest way is to ask for donations of supplies. A lot of people have old wrapping paper they're not using, especially if it's not close to Christmas and the holidays. Local small businesses can also use charity donations as a write-off.

I think my favorite part was hearing back from the schools on how their kids experienced the program, and hearing back on how important it was to work with us. That gave me the best idea of just how much of an impact you can have, even if you're young or you think what you're doing is such a small thing. To be able to fully comprehend how much of an impact we had was so big for our team.

Your team is your best asset. Your ability to delegate is going to be so important, especially if you're doing this around the holidays. It will be much less stressful if everybody has a small task. Keep your focus on the end result of children having books. One of the most crucial parts of this process is that it should be easy for other people to replicate in the future, so make sure your systems are clear and can be handed off to someone else.

And don't forget to thank your team. Because they do so much and they're so helpful, and it wouldn't be successful without them.

My parents used to read to me every night before bed, and it became a tradition in our house that you would always read a book... usually a couple of books. I think the best way to foster a love of reading is to find books that your child will love reading. If they're forced to read books, they hate it. There are so many genres out there, so find genres your kid likes.

I really, really believe in the program and its mission, and it's not something I can accomplish on my own. The most important part is having a team of people who care about it just as much as I do. So I make all the materials free, accessible, and really easy to understand because I want this to spread. I want it to be something that grows into something bigger and can foster a genuine change across the world. But without other people, without other efforts, it's not going to go far.