The Bright Lights Book Project: Nourish the Mind, Nourish the Body
Contributed by Alys Culhane
I stood in the U-Haul entryway and watched as Kid’s Kupboard Executive Director Milena Sevigny backed the nonprofit’s large white box truck between two pillars and stopped. I stepped to the side as Melina, BLBP Board member Pete Praetorius, and Kid’s Kupboard Outreach Coordinator Hally Marshall unloaded two shrink wrapped pallets of books then moved them down the hall, into storage unit 1459.
Melina later dropped nine bins off at the Eagle Hotel, the BLBP book distribution warehouse. The full bins will soon be picked up by the Kid’s Kupboard staff and dropped off at summer lunch locations. Books and free meals will then be available to children, all summer long.
Lunch and children’s books will be available at the Wasilla Library, Bugge Park, The Palmer Amoosement Park, The Goose Bay Elementary School, Nunley Park on Swanson Avenue, the Palmer Visitor’s Center, The First Baptist Church, and The Goose Bay Elementary School. Books will also be available at the Kid’s Kupboard central office.
As I put books in the bins, I thought about the Kid’s Kupboard/Bright Lights Partnership. This began in a serendipitous fashion, in May 2021, when Melina and I first met. My goat Stormy had just died, and I was looking for a new buddy for my lone goat, Ranger. Suzy Crosby, the owner of Cottonwood Creek Farm, suggested that I purchase Swamp Thing, so Pete and I went to check her out. Goats are like potato chips – you can never have just one.
I was watching the young goats when Mike, Suzy’s husband, suggested that I talk with Melina, the Wednesday night milker, adding that she was also distributing free books. I’d read about Milena’s Book Wave program in the December 2020 Make a Wish Program column of the New York Times. She worked for Tote Maritime and was shipping incoming books state-wide.
I followed Mike downstairs into the basement milking parlor. Melina, who was removing teat cups from a milk goat, looked up and smiled. In a rush of words, I told her who I was and about the Bright Lights Book Project. “We have to talk,” she said, suggesting that we meet in the next few weeks.
We met in the Koslosky building lobby. I told Melina about our bookcases in the community program, which at that time consisted of a dozen bookcase locations. I watched as she pulled forth a gardening book from the shelf and hugged it to her chest. “I love books! And I love gardening,” she exclaimed.
Over lunch, she told me about the Book Waves project, and more specifically, that she was shipping books to Native villages. I didn’t say what I was thinking – that this endeavor seemed to me to be a complicated and near impossible task. I’d wanted to ship BLBP books to villages, but I didn’t know how to go about it. As if reading my mind, Milena said she’d give me an assist. And so, in time, I too was contacting schools, filling out spread sheets, preparing books for shipping, and connecting with airline freight shippers.
We parted company with me agreeing to accompany Melina to the Kenai Peninsula where she’d distribute Covid relief supplies. She added that I could distribute BLBP books. We did two trips to the Kenai distributing hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, and books in Native villages that were located on the road system. We were told when we were in Homer that the owner of a used bookstore, the Observance of Hermits, was parting with books. “Let’s go and check this out!” Melina said. We descended upon the free books, which the owner had piled onto outdoor picnic tables. We left his place with a Tote van full of books. We, who were now hoarders with a purpose, returned home and unloaded the books in the BLBP Meeting House, a small residential building that was overflowing with books.
Over the next two years, Milena and I found appreciative readers for her Book Waves books and my BLBP books. Our venues included the Loussac Library’s Reading Rendezvous, the March Madness Basketball Tournament, and Kaladi Brother’s Co-Op for a Cause. We also travelled far and wide, picking up books that had been donated to the BLBP.
Melina suggested that the BLBP form a nonprofit board and get its own 501(C)(3). She was elected president of the newly formed board. And she assisted the BLBP in acquiring the first of three $25,000 Saltchuk grants. Two years after we met, Melina became the Executive Director of Kid’s Kupboard.
Both outdoor book and food distribution are seasonal. However, Melina and I recently resumed working together. We agreed to have books available at the Kid’s Kupboard lunch sites.
I finished stocking the Kid’s Kupboard bins and, as well, a few extra boxes of books. Who would have thunk it, that a chance meeting at a goat farm would lead to a nonprofit partnership.