People in My Neighborhood: Meghan Gaynor

To see Meghan Gaynor (aka “Judy Gloom”) skate with the Los Angeles Derby Dolls, you’d never guess that when the roller derby ends, she leaves behind the banked track and roller skates for the stacks of the Glendale Community College Library. But her job isn’t just behind the reference desk.

Gaynor, a resident of Hollywood Hills, also serves as program director for Access Books, an organization that provides books to Southern California’s most impoverished school libraries.

Gaynor said that when Access Books’ founder, Rebecca Constantino was a graduate student, she studied book to student ratios in schools and found a correlation between the quality of a school’s library and overall school achievement. While conducting the study, Constantino became aware of the disparity in library collections between affluent and low-income neighborhoods.

“In wealthier neighborhoods they have great in-house funding,” Gaynor said. “That’s not so in places like Compton.”

So, Access Books pairs up a school in an affluent area with a school in need of books. One school collects the books (about 10,000 per library) and raises funds. Then, on a designated day, about 20 volunteers from each school come together at the recipient school to paint murals on the library walls and line the shelves with books.

“It’s so satisfying to go into a school in the morning and by the end of the day see such a huge difference,” Gaynor said.

Budget cuts and reduced grant spending have made Gaynor’s task more of a challenge.

“A lot of grant makers are limiting funding and giving only to organizations that provide fundamental needs like food, shelter, and clothing,” she said.

Passionate about children’s literacy and information access, Gaynor does consider access to books a fundamental need. Which is why, in the upcoming school year, she will be working with Access Books and the Compton Unified School District to get books into every elementary school in the district.

Gaynor admits it’s hard to find enough schools to help all the schools in need. But when they do, she said, it’s very rewarding.

“It’s an eye opening thing to see these two groups of kids come together,” she said. “In the course of six hours, the kids become friends.”

(Article courtesy of the Los Feliz Ledger)