She helps thousands of children know the world through getting them donated books to read.
Susan Jaye-Kaplan
When Susan Jaye-Kaplan was a child, she touched the Great Wall of China, looked over the horizon of the Grand Canyon and traveled the world—all from the couch of the Boston Public Library.
“In my mind I did all these glorious things (through) the magic of books,” she says.
Born in Boston in 1946, she always loved reading and found a friend in a librarian at the Boston Public Library -- a Mrs. Boland -- who brought her all the new books in the children's section each day when she went to the library after school.
Every few months Boland even bought her a new book, and the girl reveled in the sweet smell of its newness.
“You’d think she had given me a million-dollar gift,” Jaye-Kaplan said.
Boland, in fact, gifted her with the knowledge that reading is precious.
Now 67 and an East Longmeadow resident, Jaye-Kaplan is helping thousands of children experience the world through the joy of reading.
Co-founder and president of Link to Libraries Inc., she oversees the distribution of thousands of books in seven languages to children in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.
For her, community service is a moral responsibility.
Link To Libraries has 31 teen and adult volunteers -- no regular paid
staff. It offers such programs as:
- Reading Any Place, which has donated books to more than 1,500 homeless youth in five cities in Western Massachusetts.
- Celebrity read alouds at area schools for children of all ages.
- Business Book Link Project in which businesses sponsor under-served schools in Western Massachusetts.
- Welcome to Kindergarten program in which children in Holyoke and Springfield receive bilingual literacy kits.
Since its inception in 2008, Link To Libraries has donated more than 110,000 new books and another 3,000 gently used books to area non-profits and public elementary schools.
It all began when Jaye-Kaplan read a newspaper article in 2008 that some local school libraries were closing and others were short on books to get children to read and be interested in reading.
“This was due to budget cuts across the nation,” she said. “It’s a national epidemic.”
So she e-mailed 67 people in an on-line book group, asking each to send her a specific book to donate to White Street School in Springfield.
A friend who is a language and reading specialist, Janet M. Crimmins of East Longmeadow, recommended good books to request.
Within 11 days they had 65 new books, and that was the beginning of Link to Libraries, Inc.
“Janet and I felt strongly that we could not change the situation in all schools, but we certainly could make a difference,” Jaye-Kaplan said.
Crimmins is the co-founder and treasurer of Link to Libraries.
“We saw an immediate response to the donation by both the staff at the school and most important, the students who were excited to receive new, sweet- smelling and beautiful books in their library at school,” Jaye-Kaplan said.
Many children rarely receive a new book, and many don’t have the opportunity to go to the public library. Some attend schools with policies that prevent them from taking school library books home.
“When you give them a new book, they’re euphoric,” Jaye-Kaplan said.
She considers herself fortunate to do the work that she does and to be so passionate about something so important—reading.
“To get up each morning, knowing that I go to a place that brings me joy and joy to others is wonderful. I am most fortunate to love what I do. Not everyone can say that,” she said.
Jaye-Kaplan—who works part-time as a consultant for the Donahue Institute/University of Massachusetts, is also the founder of Go FIT Inc. and co-founder of Women’s Leadership Network and founder of Pioneer Valley Women’s Running Club of Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut.
She is an advisory board member and fundraiser for Square One in Springfield.
She has received one of the nation’s Daily Point of Light Awards, the President’s Citation Award at Western New England University, Elms College Step Forward/Step Ahead Woman of Vision Award, Reminder Publications Hometown Hero Award, The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women Unsung Heroines Award 2007, New England Patriot’s International Charitable Foundation Community MVP Award 2008 and 2010, Girl Scouts of Pioneer Valley Women of Distinction Award 2004.
She was chosen one of Business West Magazine’s Difference Makers 2009.
Among her other awards, she has received the National Conference on Community Justice Award 2009, the Springfield Pynchon Award 2009 and the Holyoke Rotary Paul Harris Award 2013.
She has been married for almost 50 years to her high school sweetheart, Stephen G. Kaplan; they have two adult children and two granddaughters ages seven and 12.
She often suggest to parents that reading to their child at the very start is a great way to instill the value of the written word and to excite and motivate their child to love reading.
“Children who see their caregivers or family members reading will most often mimic this behavior, and it is most certainly a wonderful beginning and way to share special time with a loved one,” she said.
“So many of us are working mothers and dads but having that special time to bond, read together, loving quiet time is a blessing.”
She did that for her children and sees them doing the same with their own children now. “It does not get much better than that, so we believe,” she said.
Jaye-Kaplan says the need to be a proficient reader by grade four is most pressing, especially today with all the new technology.
“We often tell the boys and girls that even if they think they do not need to read they do,” she said.
"They cannot sign a sports contract and know the meaning without reading, cannot move ahead in a job or career without reading, and reading is truly a gift for one’s self.”
Everyone needs to read, she added -- young or older, male or female; gender should not be a barrier.
“I personally feel that in the day of technology reading is all the more important because it allows us the ability to learn more and to seek answers both through technology and through the sheer joy of reading,” she said.
“Reading will always be a priority but perhaps less in the local library and more on tech-age machines. Progress is good. I still enjoy holding that book but also enjoy the new technology of a Kindle, Nook and other such devices. Progress! All for the good.”
For more information about Link to Libraries, go to www.linktolibraries.org.