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Date: 9/4/2019
LONGMEADOW – Two Longmeadow families took time out of their summer vacation to give back and help local kids love to read. Three children in the Desrosiers family, Meghan, Mary, and Matthew, joined forces with their cousins, Luke and Mac Dunnerville, to prepare over 2,000 books for donation to underserved kids.
“With many hands, it was fast work,” Meghan said. It took about two hours on Aug. 12, she said.
Link to Libraries is a Western Massachusetts-based charity that accepts donations of new books and distributes them to local children and school libraries. Laurie Flynn, president and CEO, said in the 10 years since its inception, Link to Libraries has donated almost 600,000 new books.
“When [Flynn] told me that she had a big shipment – it sounded like she might be overwhelmed,” Meghan said. So, she invited her brother and sister. Then, she called her cousins. Flynn said she was surprised when five people showed up to help.
Volunteering is nothing new for Meghan. She contacted Flynn about a year and a half ago to ask how she could help Link to Libraries. The Desrosiers family owns Hadley Printing, which, Flynn said, has been a longtime supporter of the charity. Since then, Flynn said Meghan has been volunteering with a youth group that labels books for donation once a month. She has even brought Mary into the group.
Meghan also helped coordinate a book drive in December 2018, Battle of the Books, in which three local high schools competed to see who could collect the most new books for the charity.
“The new books that Link to Libraries provides are a gift that enables children, many of whom have never owned a book before, to begin building a home library,” said Flynn. “The kids that we serve, almost everything they have is a hand-me-down.” Therefore, the gift of a brand new book is special.
The Desrosiers’s mother, Karen Desrosiers, said that Meghan started volunteering in the eighth grade. As a junior at Longmeadow High School, she is president of the Key Club, a community-focused program that partners with the local Kiwanis Club.
Karen said the family has reached out to several soup kitchens looking for opportunities for the kids to volunteer but was told they were too young, especially Mary, 12, and Matthew, 10.
“[Helping Link to Libraries] was a great opportunity for the two younger ones to tag along,” Karen said. She said the kids learned by watching her volunteer for organizations over the years.
“I do look for ways to give back, and I think they see that,” Karen said of her children’s community spirit.
“I really just like giving back to the community. It feels really good to give back to people who are less fortunate,” said Meghan, who wants to pursue elementary and special education in college.
To learn more about Link to Libraries, visit linktolibraries.com or email Flynn at lflynn@linktolibraries.org.