Because knowledge is power...
Library for the Dubnoff Center for Child Development
The spark... This project started for me at a tea I was co-hosting with Nancy Hammerman, a good friend and former neighbor who tirelessly campaigns for the needs of autistic children and other causes. The tea was arranged to solicit holiday toys for the Dubnoff students. At the tea, we learned that the Dubnoff Library was in disrepair and badly in need of books.
My first desire was to take on the challenge of adding comic book donations to the scant book inventory at the old Dubnoff Library. I was very fortunate to have attended an excellent elementary school as a child, where we were encouraged to read comic books, magazines or whatever kind of books we enjoyed at a very young age. In Junior High, we were given comic book versions of “Dracula,” and “Frankenstein,” to further encourage an interest in reading the classics. I felt comics were a particularly good match for the Dubnoff Library because the illustrations would inspire and support slow and beginning readers.
It was a task I had dedicated 3 months of my life to achieving. Thanks to the help of Jeffrey Curtis Vaughn, Senior Editor at Gemstone Publishing, however, within 2 weeks, dozens of boxes of comic book donations were coming to the library not only from his company, but from his personal collection and from colleagues he had solicited on our behalf. Inspired by this immediate and enthusiastic response to the needs of our little library, I decided to investigate the idea of re-doing the library altogether to make the space more condusive toward learning and able to hold more books.
It takes more than a village.... None of his would have happened without the diligence and support of many individuals. Dubnoff’s Director of Development, Cheryl Gurin, gave us access, cooperation, encouragement and ultimately book grants. The blessing and continued support of Dubnoff’s President, Dr. Sandra Babcock was also essential. Arlene Samek, Director of Volunteers at Dubnoff, graciously lead us through the process of setting up a new corps of volunteers for the library and shared her wisdom and support for our newly-created activities.
The engineering skill and leadership of Matt Atherton and the Rotary Club of Studio City and Sherman Oaks provided the beautifully-constructed shelves and furniture. Judy Van Wyk and John Fernandez-Salvador of The Design Studio, an award-winning library design team, generously provided the color scheme and final design -- pro-bono.
The dedicated parents and volunteers of Dubnoff Center helped load the books, set-up the facility and man it. Emma Roberts-Green, the Children’s Librarian at Studio City provided knowledge whenever asked. Generous advice also was given by Carol Renault at Light up a Library and Terry Kang of the Wonder of Reading program, Naturally, grants from LA County’s Zev Yaroslavsky, Starbucks and a post-reconstruction donation of 1000 books helped the process immensely as well.
Evolution of a Library
