Librarian’s Passion Keeps Doors Open All Summer

ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer

Published: September 9, 2004

ATLANTA—Sandy Wilson is the type of woman who, upon meeting someone for the first time, warmly and gently grasps her new friend’s hand with both of her own.

Immediately she allows this new person into her world, into her home.

The beloved librarian of Immaculate Heart of Mary School has both a pride and humility in her vocation, and her joyful, kind spirit has endeared her to hundreds of students and faculty members in her 24 years at the parish school.

Wilson has made reading come alive for students from kindergarten through eighth grade, and her mission of making books an essential part of children’s lives seems well on its way to being accomplished.

But for Wilson, there will always be more ways to reach into the hearts of children through books, tools that years ago became more than just pages to be read, but dear friends to the quiet girl who would become a librarian.

As she sits in the IHM media center, among the thousands of books, a large percentage of which she has read herself, Wilson reflects on her childhood passion for reading.

“As a child, I was very shy,” she said. “Books were my whole world. I just loved to read. I’d say I spent about 90 percent of my free time reading.”

But Wilson grew up before the days of the World Wide Web, and information that could be garnered simply by clicking a link on a Web site. Still, she’s not one of those who laments “kids today” with a dismissive shake of her head. Instead, she tries to lead by example, guiding children to the imaginative world that books can open to them.

“Because of the technology today, the children don’t necessarily turn to books first, and it just breaks my heart because they are missing so much,” she said, adding that she is grateful that many IHM teachers require students to use both print and electronic material. “My goal is just to see books in the children’s hand, and to see them reading, reading, reading.”

Wilson has a few tricks up her sleeve that not only work toward accomplishing her mission, but also allow her to spend more time doing the work she loves.

For the past few years, Wilson has kept the IHM library open during the summer from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. While other educators relish their summer breaks, Wilson admits she even resented the three-day vacation her husband made her take this year.

Wilson uses the summer to get work done, such as processing the new shipments of books she receives. Though publishing companies include CDs that contain the information needed to process books for circulation, Wilson likes to do it herself, entering each book’s information into the computer. That way, she said, she can get a feel for the book, and make sure it’s appropriate for her students.

“And because I’m here all day during the summer, I felt it was really silly not to let the children come in,” she said. “I’m just lucky that (Tricia) DeWitt (the school’s principal) is so supportive of the library. It’s the only reason I’m able to do this.”

DeWitt calls Wilson a “kind, Spirit-filled person.”

“She is just so sweet and thoughtful and very giving,” she said. “She goes over and beyond the call of duty. She’s an absolute angel.”

Wilson, however, humbly dismisses such praise, insisting that she is only doing her job.

This past summer, Wilson led the school’s second formal summer reading program. This year, students learned that “Reading Shows You the World.” A record number of students, 232, began their reading journey at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and with each three-hour session of reading, received a stamp on their passport and “traveled” to a new location.

Outside the library, aqua-colored airplanes line the wall, each with a student’s name on it, many of them literally overflowing with paper monuments and symbols of various countries that students received each time they read for three hours.

Andrew Tran, a fourth-grader at IHM, “traveled” around the world several times this summer.

“I love to read,” he said. “It takes me to places in my imagination. I want to go to Germany, so I read a book about Germany.”

He said that Wilson encourages him to read even more.

“I think she’s cool. She’s nice and caring and loving and smart,” he said.

Jennifer Spencer, also in fourth grade, is a new student to IHM. She spent a lot of her time at the school’s library this summer. By coming to the library, she said, she was able to meet people, so she felt less nervous for the first day of classes. She also loves to read and said that “Jumanji” is her favorite book.

“Reading is interesting and it helps you learn more things,” she said. “I like it because it makes lots of pictures in my mind.”

To see the children reading fills Wilson’s heart with joy. She never dreamed when she started the summer reading program, she said, that some students would respond so strongly.

“Some of these children went ‘around the world’ six, seven or eight times. That means they were reading all the time. I had one parent tell me that she couldn’t get their child out of the house to go to the swimming pool because she was reading,” she said. “That just makes me so happy.”

Wilson estimates that over 700 books were circulated over the summer.

“What’s really neat is that a lot of the students had the time to try new books that they wouldn’t ordinarily check out,” she said.

Wilson is the mother of two grown children, and remains an avid reader. Though historical fiction is her favorite, she said she will always have a soft spot for her favorite literary genre—children’s books.

At IHM, she also teaches library skills classes, serves as the advisor for the school’s safety patrol, and assists school counselor Erin Pryles with the Rainbows program. And though she has been at IHM nearly a quarter of a century, Wilson said she never tires of her job.

“This is such a loving environment. There is a special bond between the teachers. We really are a family,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful school.”

Many of the faculty members believe that Wilson has a big part in making the school so wonderful.

Assistant principal Greg Kaiser said he has never heard a negative remark about Wilson.

“She really serves as a personification of a person filled with the Holy Spirit,” he said. “We may not have the biggest or the greatest library in the world, but she takes what we have and makes it the biggest and the greatest. We are blessed to have her.”