Each year, Barnes & Noble 2032 in Deer Park, Illinois sets out on an important mission for the holidays: to put a brand new book in the hands of every foster child in their area. Since Deer Park straddles both Lake and Cook Counties, that makes for a large community. Cook County, incidentally, is home to the City of Chicago and most of its surrounding suburbs, making it the second most populous county in the U.S. Combining the two includes over five thousand children under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Deer Park CRM Michelle Schmitz holds a special place in her heart for foster children because she used to be a foster parent herself. “I just understand the need and I’ve seen the amount of kids in this area that could use some help.”
While the store has met this goal faithfully for 3 years, the recent economic woes combined with the slowest retail holiday in recent memory presented a challenge for the 2008 season. The fact that they exceeded their goal of including every child speaks to the dedication of the booksellers and the generous clientele of Deer Park.
“We were successful because each and every one of us picked a title that resonated in our own childhood. The involvement of our booksellers is what makes this program special.” Says Store Manager Steve De Chant. Traditionally, booksellers pick titles to hand-sell personally. Lead Cashier Niki Galla lead the charge, selling more than 150 copies of The Giver and nearly as many of Fever 1798.
Close behind was Lead Cashier Jong Alabado, who explains why The Little Prince is his go-to recommendation every year, “When I was growing up I had a teacher in high school recommend that I read it and I really enjoyed it. I had just lost my father and was struggling, but I found humor in that book. I felt like I found the meaning of life. You can find who you really are and I fell in love with it. I find meaning in it still at my age. I want those children to have that kind of perspective, too.” Jong hand sold over 125 copies of The Little Prince.
Employees from every department of the store stepped up by choosing a favorite title. New music sellers Polina and Anna were able to sell 20 copies each of their picks in one shift and bookseller Debbie S. set a personal goal of 30 books a day. Lead Bookseller Anthony Graan took on the task of supplying Little Golden Books, an item not as plentiful on the shelves as in times past, shortlisting and monitoring dozens of titles resulting in over 1,000 sold.
The whole store buzzed as the last day of the year, and final day of the bookdrive, saw the finish line just 238 books away. As the deadline loomed an hour from the 6:00 p.m. close on New Year’s Eve, store announcements let customers know about the last 20, 15, 10, etc. books needed to reach the goal, prompting several people to ask what they could do to help. Booksellers dipped into their own pockets along the way as well to provide their favorite selections and round out the final number at 5,004 books collected for the foster children under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Schmitz expresses her gratitude to the booksellers and the customers. “The enthusiasm from everyone is very touching. It means so much that everyone was that excited on the last day, especially to hear about the countdown that evening.”
Andrew Martinez of the DCFS Office of Communications & Community Outreach let us know that the kids “are already enjoying the books.” Bryan Samuels, Director of DCFS extended a heartfelt thank you saying, “Your support of the children we serve is remarkable. The holiday season was made a little brighter because your company not only cared, but also shared.”
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NOTES: For two years in between college at U of I and grad school at Medill, I was a supervisor and Barnes & Noble in Deer Park, IL, a suburb northwest of Chicago. I wrote this piece for the intra-company newsletter on a whim because I missed doing stories and it landed on the front page of the weekly e-newsletter to all BN stores.
I was definitely floundering with what I wanted to do for a living at the time and reporting and writing this helped me remember where my heart lies when it comes to a profession.
