Debbie Gordon began volunteering with Book Buddies long before the program came to the SAISD Foundation. She is the top volunteer on our leader board, volunteering as a lead every single month. Debbie – thank you for your service to the program and for making a direct impact on students through your dedication and passion for reading. Let’s meet Debbie!

What drew you to the program?
I was familiar with Book Buddies through my former job as a community relations manager and it was one of our editorial staff who approached me about organizing a book collection drive. In 2012, we partnered with the San Antonio Youth Literacy (SAYL) to promote their “Reading Buddies” program to help 2nd-grade students acquire the skills to read at a 3rd-grade level by getting books into students’ hands. In addition to collecting books, we volunteered to sort, count, and pack the books that would be distributed to Reading Buddy students at the end of the school year, and by reading to kids at the King William Fair held during Fiesta. We participated in these activities every year until the pandemic hit in 2020.

How did you become a lead volunteer?
As a cohort in the Leadership SAISD Class of 2020-21, one of our first sessions included a presentation about the SAISD Foundation where we learned that Book Buddies was one of their programs. I was excited to get involved with the organization and immediately signed up on the volunteer page! Cristina Sosa Noriega, who was the volunteer manager at the time, reached out to me and asked how I knew about the Book Buddies program. Given my past experience, I was asked to take on a leadership role and happily accepted becoming a team lead volunteer.
The plan was to start book sorting that October and recruit volunteers so more kids could get free books from the 20 schools served in the 2018-2019 school year to 35 schools or more in 2020 which was critical given students were having to learn remotely from home.

How have you seen the program grow or change over the years?
I’ve seen lots of changes to the program over the past dozen years! It’s been exciting to watch Book Buddies evolve from its humble beginnings where we sorted books in donated shopping center spaces to the current warehouse space at Port SA after Book Buddies became a program of the SAISD Foundation in 2020. Each year, Book Buddies continues to exceed the goal of getting more books into the hands of students as well as the number of volunteers who support our mission! In the past five years that I’ve been a team lead, Book Buddies has gone from delivering books to schools to a dedicated school bus! The bus itself inspires and excites the kids. It’s almost like a magic school bus that opens a new world of possibilities and dreamers of the future. So I’d say we’ve definitely grown!

What is your motivation for giving so much of your time to the program?
There’s nothing I love more than seeing a child reading a book. I’ve always said you can’t learn if you can’t read, and if you don’t have access to books, that’s incredibly sad. Books are the gateway to learning about the world around us and Book Buddies provides the essential seed to help a child grow and foster a love of reading while at the same time increasing their reading skills to succeed in school. I love that this transcends to many of our volunteers as well. It’s a perfect alternate diversion in this ever-changing world of technology.

Do you have a favorite memory or moment from your time volunteering?
I would note it’s the energy our volunteers bring each Saturday – while some come to fulfill service hours; many of our volunteers repeatedly register time and again – sometimes taking on a leadership role. Our volunteers are an integral part of endorsing the Book Buddies mission to their friends and family. Nothing makes me happier than their feeling of accomplishment at the end of a shift and their anticipation of volunteering again with us. That’s the best reward I receive from our volunteers.

What do you think makes Book Buddies special or different from other volunteer opportunities?
Volunteering for Book Buddies delivers an immediate impact for the students we serve. When students take the books they selected from the Book Buddies bus home, they’re excited to read and share the stories with their siblings, family, or friends. Our volunteers play essential roles in making that happen – book sorting, adding books to the bins on the bus, reading to students on book distribution visits, or making a monetary contribution. These are all tangible investments in the future of these students.

What was your favorite book as a child?
My favorite book as a child was the “Little House on the Prairie” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I loved her stories of the adventures and challenges she and her family encountered living on rural lands. There were always lessons to be learned and appreciated.