Parents of pre-school students know her quite simply as “The Book Lady.”
Diana O’Keefe moved with her husband, Dave, to Reynolds Lake Oconee 15 years ago from Long Island, N.Y. They live on a cul-de-sac in the woods on the Plantation side. She could easily sit back, relax and enjoy her retirement years. Instead, she, like so many of her fellow residents at Reynolds Lake Oconee, is making a difference.
O’Keefe heads the Greene County team of the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy, a non-profit organization committed to providing books to pre-school children for reading and learning success. It’s a fact in Georgia that 61 percent of low-income families do not have a single piece of reading material suitable for a child. Moreover, 75 percent of students who are poor readers in the third grade will remain poor readers in high school.
Inspired by the success of the Dollywood Foundation program (founded by Dolly Parton), Robin Ferst, a Georgian, formed the Ferst Foundation in 1999.
Greene County’s “Book Lady” and her committed army of some 20 volunteers, mostly Reynolds Lake Oconee residents, are doing their part. Currently in the county, more than 700 preschool students are signed up for the local Ferst Foundation program, which enables them to receive an age-appropriate book at their house every month via U.S. mail until their fifth birthday.
“Recently, a mother saw me picking up books at the post office and asked if I was The Book Lady,” O’Keefe recalls. “She threw her arms around me and thanked me for what we’re doing for her and her children. She said to me, ‘No one ever read to me growing up,’ so you can see where this program can have a positive impact on the entire family.”
The children’s classic, “The Little Engine That Could,” is the first book sent, while “Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten” is the graduation book sent when the child turns five.
O’Keefe and her organization also have heard from local first- and second-grade teachers who relate that Ferst “graduates” are more anxious to read and remain quiet during designated reading periods than children who were never enrolled in the program.
“A book has become a friend to the Ferst graduates,” O’Keefe said.
The first mailing of books in Greene County occurred January 2003, and since then, a whopping total of 45,700 books have been distributed.
Since it costs $36 per child per year, the organization keeps busy with fundraising, including Monday Night Football at The Tavern, and donations from local residents, businesses, community groups and the “Save the Change” program at the Union Point Elementary School.
“This has become my passion,” O’Keefe said. “We’re making a difference by providing books to children with the goal of instilling a love of reading that can only be a positive force in their lives.”
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