78 SPRING 2019 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
Brain Food
from the Heart
By Jennifer Proe
Three years ago, the Cleveland Kids’ Book
Bank was an idea waiting to happen. At
that time, the organization’s co-founders,
Shaker residents Judy Immerman Payne
and Judi Kovach, had just met as volunteers
installing Little Free Libraries throughout
low-income neighborhoods in Cleveland.
“In 2014, the City of Cleveland was a
book desert,” says Payne. The movement
to install small wooden kiosks filled with
free books was just taking off, and Payne
and Kovach eagerly teamed up with a
small group of volunteers to bring LFLs to
Cleveland neighborhoods.
By the fall of 2015, Payne and
Kovach had installed 30 LFLs in lowincome
areas of Cleveland and were
supporting a total of 60. The only
problem? Keeping them stocked.
“We needed an endless supply of
books,” says Kovach, a Fernway resident
who is retired from Progressive Insurance.
“We had this idea of developing a central
repository for collecting them.”
“We thought of it as a food bank,
but with food for the brain,” says Payne, a
Sussex resident with a background in nonprofit
management and fundraising.
Payne and Kovach knew that early
childhood literacy is critical to helping
break the poverty cycle, yet most lowincome
families do not own a single book.
They were determined to get books into
the hands of as many children and their
parents as possible.
As luck would have it, they connected
with an online bookseller in Toledo who
was happy to donate a large quantity of
children’s books in good condition that
were
headed
for the shredder.
When they told the
bookseller they’d come collect
them with an SUV, he told them, “Send a
truck. We have 40,000.”
Kovach and Payne quickly sorted out
warehouse space, rounded up funding
from family and friends, and in February
of 2016 the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank
was born.
The books go far beyond the Little
Free Libraries. The Book Bank has now
distributed more than 1.7 million books
to children in need throughout Greater
Cleveland, working with hundreds of
agencies. In recognition of its work, the
Book Bank received the 2016 Center for
Community Solutions Anisfield-Wolf
Memorial Award, along with a host of
other awards.
Each month, hundreds of volunteers
of all ages and backgrounds come to
the Book Bank at 3635 Perkins Avenue
to sort books for two hours at a time –
including book groups, church groups,
young professionals, teens, college
students, and retirees.
While volunteers hail from all over
Cleveland, it’s not surprising that many of
their regular volunteers come from Shaker
Heights, a community known for its
commitment to education and service.
One of those regulars, Fernway
resident Jean Albrecht, enjoys the trip
down memory lane as she comes across
books she loved reading to her own
children, as well as the social aspect of
chatting with the
other volunteers. She also
finds it incredibly rewarding.
“You hear stories of children
receiving books of their own, sometimes
for the first time ever, and you can’t
help but feel proud to support this lifechanging
organization,” she says.
And when Fernway Elementary
School was devastated by a fire last
summer, the two co-founders of the Book
Bank were gratified to be able to help out
in their own backyard.
“Our classroom libraries were totally
destroyed and had to be rebuilt prior
to the start of school,” says Fernway
principal Chris Hayward. “The Book Bank
stepped in and provided our teachers with
an amazing collection of books, which
allowed our students to hit the ground
running on day one.”
Says Kovach, “We were able to create
the Book Bank because our community
came together to make it happen.” Payne
adds, “There is a role for everyone who
wants to help.”
To learn more about donating or
sorting books at the Cleveland Kids’ Book
Bank, visit kidsbookbank.org or find them
on Facebook @ClevelandKidsBookBank. SL
Judy Immerman Payne:
jpayne@kidsbookbank.org
Judi Kovach:
kovach@kidsbookbank.org
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