“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read to a child.” Dr. Seuss
Meet Debby: (In her own words) “My life has been about children, books and libraries as reading is everything to me; enchanting, life changing and fulfilling. Reading was always my safe haven. As a child I would climb a rock wall, library book tucked under my chin, and sit on the summit for hours alone in my story world. It was a happy place. A wonderful sanctuary filled with imaginary places and people and adventures.
As I grew up I knew I wanted that world for everyone. I want every child to know the joys of words, the smell of books, the taste of adventure and imagination. I want them to feel the touch of someone sitting with them sharing a picture book. I want them to hear the comforting silence of libraries. I want them to learn empathy from being exposed to stories of people different from themselves. So I have spent a lifetime volunteering to read to children and hopefully influencing them in some small way to enjoy a world of books. As a RIF, Reading is Fundamental, volunteer I was able to share this love of stories with young children. Throughout the years I read to children in hospitals to take their minds off of their fears and pain. In Title 1 schools the books I gave the children were often times the first books these children ever had of their own. Watching a child’s face as I read, making each character a different voice, filling their young minds with fantasy and humor and heroes and nature was pure joy. And now I am privileged to read to my granddaughter Adelaide and hopefully leave her with this love of learning. Our days are filled with literary friends like Eloise, and Curious George and Madeleine, Peppa Pig and Angelina Ballerina, Peter, Little Blue Truck, Pete the Cat, and Knuffle Bunny and the Pokey Little Puppy. I look forward to the days when we meet some of the authors her mother and I read together like J.K. Rowling and E.B. White and Dr. Seuss, my dear friend Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Lewis Carroll, Lucy Maude Montgomery, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Astrid Lundgren, Neil Gaiman, C.S. Lewis, Maurice Sendak, Maude Roald Dahl, Maude Hart Lovelace, Jan Brett and Beatrix Potter, Madeleine L’Engle, Eloise Wilkins, Inga Moore, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume and on and on. Oh, the places we will go!”
*** Please follow along on instagram as well and learn more about Debby. This year for my birthday, I am embarking on a weekly photo essay project highlighting 52 Phenomenal Women. This is week 15 of 52. Participants in this project will be supporting the efforts of Dress for Success Worldwide – Central. We are all stronger together and it is my sincere hope that we will be inspired by each other’s stories. Now is the time to celebrate as well as encourage one another. Tell your story!***
