We’ve been spending a lot of time lately talking about the structure that currently houses the Greenfield Public Library, reporting on the debate over whether now is the time to move from the colonial home into a 21st century structure.
And as important as the library building is, today we’d like take a break from that debate and heap a little praise one of the services the library provides outside the building: its Homebound Delivery Program, which pairs patrons who have trouble leaving their home with volunteers who bring them books, CDs, videos and cheer.
It was established in the 1980s by volunteer Martha Greene, with the blessing of the late Mike Franceschi, who was library director at the time, and always fostering new ways to insinuate the library into people’s lives.
“We both thought that it was important to bring the library to people who were at home,” Greene recalled recently.
Besides the books and videos, “What it does is make friendships between people in the community and people at home. It’s not only a library benefit; it’s a benefit to the community because it brings us together,” Greene explained.
“People who receive literature from the library are more alive than they would be without it,” she asserted.
Wow, what a testament.
The last time we checked, the program had about 30 volunteers who serve two dozen patrons. We would encourage anyone with a homebound friend or neighbor to reach out to the library so its Delivery volunteers can help enrich and enliven their days. And if you have some time on your hands and like this idea, why not call and volunteer.
The library’s volunteers – as do those in most programs of this sort – will tell you they get more from the experience than they give.
Patron Marjorie Reid has summed up her described the Homebound Delivery Program as an innovative service that creates and sustains community through books, but more importantly, through human contact.
Reid has only good things to say about the library generally and its librarians with whom she has had a years-long relationship, and she treasures her friendship with the library volunteers that now bring her reading materials and sustain her longtime relationship with the library.