Providing books to those who can't afford them

10/19/2003
Tom Shea, Springfield Republican

Last fall, Dave Mazor was visiting his youngest daughter at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.

Well aware of state school budget cuts, he stopped in at the library and asked if they accepted book donations. Dave was looking to find a good home for some astronomy books he no longer needed. "The librarian told me the library hasn't been able to buy books in two years. It got me thinking. You need books? I'll get you books."

And he did.

Dave, an independent film distributor, lives in Amherst. He used to manage the Amherst Cinema. He has connections throughout the Five Colleges. He put out the word he was looking for books. Soon his garage at 24 Mountain View Circle was bulging with them.

Sifting through the haul, Dave realized he had thousands that weren't college level. But books, nonetheless, that could change somebody's life.

He started thinking again, this time aided by the miracle of the Internet. Dave entered the question "poorest state" into the Google search engine. The answer was Mississippi. Then he entered "poorest town." Up came an article about Durant, Mississippi.

He called Durant High School. He talked to a librarian. She said if a student wanted a book to research Neil Armstrong's 1969 walk on the moon, well, she couldn't help. The library didn't have books that current.

"I had no idea how poor these poor schools were," Dave says. That's when Reader to Reader was born.

Dave Mazor's idea is dedicated to bringing books, free of charge, to needy libraries around the United States.

If it means his back gets sore from lugging boxes of books to the post office or the shocks on his '94 Honda bottom out under the weight of the books he collects, so be it.

"I'm idealistic," he says. "I'm enthusiastic. This is important. Ask anyone who has ever been inspired by a book."

You could start with Dave Mazor. When he was young, basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell's autobiography, "Go Up For Glory," was a huge influence on him.

A year after its birth, Reader to Reader has donated more than 20,000 books to libraries in 15 states, from Navajo reservations to poor rural communities to the inner city areas of Springfield.

"There's no shortage of books out there," Dave says. "The key is efficiently collecting them and getting them into libraries, into the hands of kids. We had a call from a school in Springfield, Bridge Academy. They needed poetry books. We sent them 70."

The day we speak, Dave has an appointment to pick up books at a home in Northampton, then show up at the South Hadley townwide tag sale to scoop up books otherwise destined for a Dumpster. He then planned to spend part of the evening boxing books for an elementary school library in Compton, California. In the morning a trip to the post office was scheduled, then a round of calls to schools in low-income communities offering free books.

Dave, who is married to a medical researcher and the father of two adult children, says he works seven days a week.

"But it doesn't feel like work," he adds.

The 45-year-old financed the early months of Reader to Reader with his credit card. Postage mostly. But realized he couldn't save the whole world on one Visa card. Dave incorporated Reader to Reader as a nonprofit. He did some fund raising. Started writing for grant money.

Word about what he was doing got out. Four volunteers came forward.

When it started to get real cold real fast last fall, The Cadigan Center for Religious Life at Amherst College offered him storage space. The actor John Larroquette of "Night Court" fame, a book lover, became a benefactor. Sarah Clark, the community outreach person at the Hadley Barnes & Noble, is a fan. She lobbied the bookstore giant to start a pilot program providing local school libraries with books and money to buy books. This week, Springfield's DeBerry School will be the first recipient.

"I daydream about kids opening an art book and being inspired by what's inside," Dave says, "or a child reading something and going, 'I want to grow up to be a lawyer or writer.' It also breaks my heart when I think that someone is throwing books out. If you want to help donating books, money, your time, give me a call at (413) 253-7569 or email dmazor@readertoreader.org. We'll do some good."