Welcome to our new blog series, Plot Twist! Here, we'll be sharing the stories of people in the Words Alive community — stories of change, growth, and maybe a few surprising twists! We hope that through these stories, you'll get to know our community a little better and see the power of literacy come to life.
A picture of Gayle.
Meet Gayle Early! Gayle is a freelance writer and new volunteer who found us recently through the Californians For All Summer of Service project. Though she’s only been with Words Alive for a few months, her passion and enthusiasm for our mission overflows from the minute you meet her! In this interview, she shares her experience supporting in-person volunteer opportunities during the pandemic and her desire to share the magic of stories with others. (Note: all in-person volunteering took place earlier in the year, in accordance with county and state guidelines and restrictions. Stay safe!)
Gayle adores reading books of all kinds, which makes volunteering with Words Alive a natural fit. She jokes that she’ll even read the phone book if you let her! Years ago, at a boring dinner party, she opened a volume about the difference between oil- and water-based paints. It was the only book she could find, so she started reading without hesitation. “I was like, ’I can learn something here!’” she remembers, laughing. “If there's a book around, I'll pick it up,” she declares. “When you come to my house, the most I have of any object is books,” she says happily. “I would just give my last nickel for a book at a secondhand store.”
Gayle reading with one of her daughters when she was little.
She made sure to pass on this love of stories and reading to her own children, reading aloud to them even before they were born! She also volunteered as a reading tutor in her daughters’ school, where she found a lot of meaning in helping struggling students learn to enjoy reading. “Stories are magical and books are magic,” Gayle emphasizes. “I wanted to join this organization to have a little bit more of that magic with other kids besides my own.”
And Gayle doesn’t hesitate to turn her passion into action. When we asked for volunteers, her response was simple: “I was all in!”
One of her first assignments was picking up book donations from other volunteers who were at high risk for COVID-19 and unable to leave home. “I was really happy to help with that for them, so that they didn’t need to go drop anything off or drive anywhere,” she says. She has also helped process large book donations from ReaderLink, which she really enjoyed. “That was so much fun!” she says. “Diving into an entire room full of brand-new books—that was pretty exciting for me.”
Volunteers sorting book donations. (Note: All in-person volunteering took place earlier in the year, in accordance with county and state guidelines and restrictions. Stay safe!)
She also loved the ability to safely connect with other volunteers, masks and all, over a passion for stories as they sorted through the titles. “It was like the highlight of that particular week of otherwise complete isolation,” Gayle says. “It was also a good workout!” she laughs, describing the process of moving boxes of books up and down the stairs.
Ever since she was little, reading has played an important role in Gayle's life. “Books saved my life when I was growing up, they really did,” she says, describing the library in the small town where she grew up. “I would go to that library and just get a stack of books and just escape into other worlds as a child.” One of her favorite books was a children’s science fiction novel by Eleanor Cameron called The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. In the book, two young boys build a rocket ship and have adventures with aliens on a faraway planet.
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, one of Gayle’s favorite childhood books.
“As a little kid, I was in that rocket flying out to outer space, where the aliens were actually friendly and sweet and kind and funny,” she remembers. Instead of fear of the unknown and unfamiliar, this book represented “exploration and adventure and friendship” to Gayle. “It really paved my mentality for being a curious person, instead of a fear-based person,” she says. She also credits the literacy skills she picked up from devouring so many books with helping her excel in school.
Today, she hopes that she can help others have similar experiences with the transformative power of books. “I want that for kids in our community who might not have the support or may come from a tougher home life like I did,” she explains. “Reading is an escape from the reality that someone might be in, but it also expands the world,” she says. Through a good book, a kid in California has the opportunity to go to San Francisco in a story, or New York, or out to the country, or into the ocean—the possibilities for learning and exploring are endless.
“Stories can be healing, and stories can help you feel less alone. You recognize that some things are things we all have in common.
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And as they expand our worlds, stories also bring us together. “Stories can be healing, and stories can help you feel less alone. You recognize that some things are things we all have in common,” Gayle says, a reminder that feels more important than ever right now. “Literacy is about empowering everybody to recognize and show up with their unique abilities and talents, because we need everybody, as a society,” she says. “Literacy is one way to reach people to show them what the possibilities are.”
Gayle, thank you for bringing your time, energy, and enthusiasm to Words Alive! We know that your story will inspire more volunteers to raise their hands and say, “I’m all in!”
