Lifelong Volunteer Talks about the Importance of Giving Back
By Emily Gaines Buchler
Two mornings a week, Esther leaves her row house a few blocks away and catches a ride to Barclay. She spends her mornings cataloging new books and reading to children in quiet corners of the library. She knows the collection like the back of her hand and can recommend books to most anyone. A member of the Johns Hopkins University Woman’s Club (Woman’s Club), Esther started volunteering at Barclay “in 1968 or ’69, I’m not quite sure,” she says. At that time, she and other members of the Woman’s Club set out to make Barclay, Esther’s neighborhood school, better by bringing in supplies—magazines, glue, scissors and other items—and helping teachers in classrooms. After twenty-some years, the principal, Gertrude Williams, approached the Woman’s Club about Barclay’s need for an improved library. Esther and other women took up the cause, pushing cartfuls of books to classrooms and introducing students to first-rate children’s literature. Over the next few years, they retrofitted the existing library—putting down carpet, bringing in new tables and chairs, weeding out old books and building a top-notch collection.
Three years shy of her hundredth birthday, Esther relishes her mornings at Barclay. “I think youngsters need to have contact with older people, and older people need to have contact with younger people,” she says. “Volunteering is all about the relationships we build with the children. That’s what we do at Barclay—we build relationships—and we make a difference, tiny as it may be.” Esther’s memories of individual students number high. There’s the group of girls she introduced to a new series of cookbooks—and got them talking about and trying out foods and recipes. And there’s Demetreus, “one of the youngsters I remember so well, who went on to become one of the Hopkins scholars—the kids who get a free Hopkins education,” Esther says. “I’ll never forget him.” Along with the benefits taken home by Barclay students, Esther finds personal growth in volunteering, too. “It stimulates us,” she says. “I think most everyone who comes here to volunteer goes home feeling a little concerned about the needs of the children and that maybe they’ve brightened their day—and helped them love books.” “The benefits of volunteering are subtle,” Esther continues. “Somebody can be very unhappy most of the time. Then they can go in and volunteer in a school and come home and think about something really good, and what more they can do to help that child or school.” For Esther, volunteering keeps her “going on living,” she says. “I have to admit that this point in my life is not as broad as it once was. Most of my contemporaries are gone, and volunteering keeps me in touch with the world and what’s going on. It keeps me wanting to keep on going.” With the seeds of volunteerism planted in childhood—her parents were staunch believers in giving back to the community—Esther doesn’t hesitate to prod others to help out. “Schools need advocates, they need fundraisers, they need envelopes addressed,” she says. “There’s always a place for someone who wants to volunteer.” More effective than prodding is her example. “Even in ice, she comes in,” says Marilyn Tabb, another Woman’s Club member and long-time Barclay volunteer. “She inspires the rest of us—her dedication, her stamina, her age. If she can do it, there’s no reason the rest of us can’t.” |
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“This book is stunning,” says 97-year-old volunteer Esther Bonnet, affixing a label to the front of The Girl Who Drew a Phoenix, a new purchase by the Barclay Elementary/Middle School library. “I can’t wait to read it.”
Esther managed the library with other volunteers and Barclay staff members for 15 years. Then, in 2008, a half-time librarian came on board. “Mrs. Raim is here two and a half days a week, so our role is changing,” Esther says. “We don’t teach or read to the children as much as we did, but we work with them, particularly in the younger grades, when they need help selecting a book.”
