Lou Hull
Chair of First Book Fox Valley Advisory Board
Appleton, Wisconsin
Several years ago, Lou Hull read a book called ‘Seedfolks’ that had a major impact on her life. The book, a short novel by Paul Fleischman, tells the story of a group of people in Cleveland who transform a vacant lot into a community garden. Hull was powerfully affected by the book’s message of overcoming fear and division to build a sense of community.
“I wasn’t sleeping at night, because the messages in the book resonated so strongly and I wanted people to read it,” she said.
For the next year and a half, Hull made it her mission to get the people of Appleton, Wis. to read ‘Seedfolks’. She organized local reading events, arranged for a thousand copies of the book to be distributed and visited schools, universities, libraries and community groups to get the word out. The author himself found out about Hull’s efforts after several Appleton students wrote to him, and he traveled to Wisconsin to spend several days with Hull and other members of the community. He even got to see a local stage production of the book while he was visiting.
Thanks to Hull, nearly 20,000 people in Appleton have read the book. “I have to say that it was the most important thing I have done in my professional life,” she said.
That experience led her to a local volunteer chapter of First Book — known as an Advisory Board — who initially helped her with the ‘Seedfolks’ project, and when it was over, asked her to join the board.
Since taking over as chair, Hull has helped First Book’s Fox Valley Advisory Board expand into nearby towns to reach more children in low-income neighborhoods and Title I schools. She has helped raise the group’s profile, as well as ensure their fund-raising efforts promote literacy. (At a recent fund-raiser a local meteorologist read ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs’ to a group of children, who, in turn, read the book to “reading dogs“).
“We’re working hard to get more well-known in the community, because it helps us raise more money,” Hull said. “And the more money we raise, the more books we can get to the kids. People love it that they can give ten dollars and that money goes to buy books. ”
Hull works in a charter school library, and is involved in numerous other volunteer activities, including diversity presentations at local schools. The thread that runs through all of these, she says, is the importance of educating children, and reading is the key – not just the skill of reading, but the love of it.
“Reading is the basis of everything, especially with education,” Hull said. “If you can’t read, you can’t study social studies, you can’t learn geography, you can’t do word problems. And even if you have the skills to read, if you don’t enjoy reading, you’re not going to do it.”
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