PITTSFIELD — Sorting through the stacks of worn children’s books kept Karen Vogel’s hands busy Monday morning, as past and future weighed heavily on her mind.
“It’s important to be part of the community today,” she said.
By today she means two things — the national holiday that honors Martin Luther King Jr. and the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The coinciding events have left Vogel and many others struggling to reconcile two diverging visions for the nation.
Vogel was one of 50 volunteers who donated their holiday to support events organized across Pittsfield in honor of King. Some volunteers organized books and assembled personal care kits at Berkshire United Way. Others sorted donated toys, games, books, winter clothes and baby gear which families could pick up throughout the day at Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center.
“Kids deserve to have an education so they can come to educated conclusions like Martin Luther King Jr. did and so they can have the confidence to go out and fight for what they believe in like he did,” said Eros Drysgola, 17. “Books are the number one way to get there.”
In a back room at the Berkshire United Way offices, Vogel and her fellow volunteers filled 45 reusable bags with worn children’s books that will later replenish the nonprofit’s 40-some book houses that dot municipalities and neighborhoods across the county, said Pam Knisley, community engagement manager at Berkshire United Way.
“We want people to be able to take a book and be able to find a love of reading,” Knisley said.
The books, which were donated by individuals, local organizations or the Berkshire Athenaeum, were mostly illustrated children’s stories and novels for middle grade students.
Some books were conspicuously missing from the piles — board books, novels in Spanish, books from newer publishing imprints created to address the lack of diverse voices in the industry.
Those books are more difficult to come by through donations, Knisley said. United Way has set up online wishlists to broaden and diversify the selection children have to choose from, she said.
Erin Hanson, left, and some local alums from Cornell University volunteer and help recipients at the Family Day & Free Toy Store at the Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center in Pittsfield on Monday as part of volunteer opportunities around the Berkshires to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
As volunteers stickered each book and placed it into the corresponding bag, the revered Civil Rights leader they’d gathered to honor was not far from anyone’s minds.
“Kids deserve to have an education so they can come to educated conclusions like Martin Luther King Jr. did and so they can have the confidence to go out and fight for what they believe in like he did,” said Eros Drysgola, 17. “Books are the No. 1 way to get there.”
Also not far from mind was another event — the inauguration.
“This inauguration day being part of the community was important to me because that’s the only way that we’re going to help ourselves is to come together as a community,” Vogel said.
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