Spreading Literacy in Louisville, One Yard at a Time

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Mary Sullivan. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Mary Sullivan grew up with a family legacy of volunteerism. She, herself, was a candy striper in high school. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that after becoming the first female intern for the United Way of America, she spent much of her 42-year career at Metro United Way (MUW) engaging volunteers in service. Around ten years ago, nearing retirement, Mary co-founded and built MUW’s Little Free Library (LFL) program and has led it as a volunteer ever since. The program places small boxes in residents’ yards filled with donated books for people to take home for free. They’re strategically placed in under-resourced neighborhoods to promote literacy and encourage families to create their own home library.

The program has become a community affair–in part due to Mary’s recruiting efforts–drawing Boy Scouts, University of Louisville architecture students and various companies to build libraries and the local carpenters’ union to repair them as they age.

As one might imagine, LFLs are only one of numerous volunteer efforts Mary is involved in. She is a member of the Junior League of Louisville and also distributes food at the Dare to Care Food Bank and builds houses with Habitat for Humanity, the latter of which she has been doing for over 30 years.

What inspires you to volunteer?

My parents were active volunteers, so it was just a natural thing in our family. My dad was an active volunteer behind the scenes with local politics. The first volunteer opportunity that I remember is going to a campaign’s headquarters to help stuff envelopes when we were 7 or 8 years old. They had lots of food–popcorn and candy and donuts–and the older women volunteering kept asking us, “Would you like something to eat?” A couple of weeks later, my dad asked me if I wanted to go volunteering again, and I said yes. We went to the American Lung Association, and again, we were stuffing envelopes. I said, “Where’s the food?” I like to joke that’s why I volunteer.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Metro United Way.

I coordinate the donation and distribution of 45 to 50 books in each of our 36 libraries twice a month. Our volunteers pick up the books that I have boxed for them according to age–preschool through second grade, youth and adults–and put them in LFLs along seven different routes. Any books left from the previous two weeks are cleared out. The national tagline is, “Take a book, leave a book.” But we believe that in the neighborhoods that we’re in, there are very few books in the home. So we encourage readers to keep the books, because we don’t really need them back. We have great donations. In the 10 years since we started, we have distributed over 257,000 books.

I follow up when people call United Way with donations and work with corporate groups who want to do a project like a book drive. We have “Dear Reader” labels that they can either write a message to future readers or add a quote about education or reading.

Half-Priced Books, Barnes and Noble and the Louisville Free Public Library are two of our wonderful partners. We also get around 5,000 books yearly from individuals, i.e., someone cleaning out the house of a loved one who has passed or who is downsizing. They either bring them to United Way, or we go get them. When they have 100+ books, I’ll pick them up in the van. It takes a bit of time to keep the book room of donations organized as well. And finally, every three years, I help organize a thank you reception for volunteers and those who host libraries in their yard.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I started at Metro United Way in Louisville as a generalist doing planning, allocations and campaigns, before managing the volunteer center, an in-house program. Though the job changed a few times, I was always engaging people or employee groups to volunteer.

Any time we had a Day of Caring, numerous corporate groups wanted to build things. In 2014, I was online and discovered Little Free Libraries (LFLs). There was a story about the LFL founder Todd Bol, who started it to honor his mother, a librarian.

When I was growing up, we had books in the house. My sister was an avid reader. I’d have rather gone outside to play, but when Nancy Drew books came out, I got hooked on mysteries, and have liked them ever since. We could ride our bikes to our library. Like food deserts, there are a lot of book deserts in Louisville; libraries are few and far between. One of Metro United Way’s major focuses is ensuring that children are ready for kindergarten. I thought LFLs would be a great project for companies wanting to build something, so I went to my boss and said, “I’ve got something for UPS and GE to build.”

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

LFLs help achieve three of Metro United Way’s goals–thriving kids, strong households and equitable community. They increase reading skills with stories that about characters who look like the people reading them and their neighbors. The highlight is when I’m out distributing books, and I see somebody at a library. That’s what it’s all about.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

I wouldn’t be the person I am today without volunteering. Some people who have said they’ll never volunteer don’t realize they’re already doing it. That’s the American way. Help your senior neighbor rake leaves or shovel snow. It’s something that everybody can and should do. I try to always remember one of my dad’s lines: “We could accomplish anything if we don’t care who gets the credit.”

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Mary? Find local volunteer opportunities.